lucid

05.04.2010

Super Paralysis (Note)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Morning after a night out, once again. I didn't manage to get lucid in any dreams, but I did get a serious blast of sleep paralysis. Absolutely exhausted, I was sleeping on my back. I'm not sure if I came out of a dream, or I was maybe just really relaxed and forgot where I was for a while. Either way, I realised I was lying in bed, but couldn't move at all. My arms were by my sides, and I tried to lift them but they were completely dead. I actually tried really hard to move, just to test the power of the paralysis. It was total. Then I opened my eyes. I'm almost positive the room I saw was the real room and not a hallucination because nothing was "off". Light levels were consistent with the real room and everything was in the right place. I had a pretty good view because I had like three pillows under me. I couldn't see very clearly though, which is what makes me suspicious about whether or not I was hallucinating a view of the room.

Anyway, I thought I shouldn't waste this great opportunity for a WILD, but I was so insanely exhausted that I just fell asleep unconsciously.

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.

30.03.2010

Iron/Bat/Super-man (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

There was a very interesting storyline running throughout this dream, although I can only remember part of it.

I was like Superman, in that I was an alien sent to earth at birth, but in my time as a superhero, I wore a black costume very similar to Batman. It included a chest-mounted weapons dock/jetpack, which gave me flying abilities like Ironman. The earliest part I can remember is having a fight with some half-assed villain in the middle of a gravel hockey pitch, at night. (The villain looked a bit like Shooter McGavin from Happy Gilmore) In the struggle, he managed to unclip my jetpack, and put it on in an attempt to escape. Faced with a situation where I was about to become powerless, I became lucid.

I've noticed that I do this quite a lot. If I'm being overwhelmed by monsters, or can do nothing to "save the day", I usually turn lucid automatically to take advantage of the god-like powers it affords me. The lucidity is never quite "top-notch", I would be hard-pressed to remember any tasks of the month/year and I usually just go along with the plot of the dream because it doesn't take much effort.



The villain was about to take off. I adopted an arrogantly masculine stance (pic above) and laughed triumphantly.
"It only works for me you stupid asshole! Biometric contols!" I had made this up in my head just there now, but the certainty in my voice seemed to have made it so. The bad guy bashed every button desperately, but to no avail. I jumped him from behind and wrestled him to the ground, taking back my jetpack. I clipped it back on quickly, and looked at the HUD. My vision was now slightly tinted with orange, and I could see some Chinese letters flashing across the bottom of my view. The flight controls were located on two handles which sat just on top of my lower ribs. It was a little bit like a roller coaster harness in design. Right then, I noticed the ground below me was starting to light up slightly. I assumed the sun must be coming up, but I was wrong. Shooter McGavin started shouting.
"Look! It's a meteor! We're all doomed!"
"What??" I turned around, and sure enough, there was a fireball in the sky. I activated my jetpack by squeezing a trigger on each of the two handles, and hovered waiting to see where it was going to land. It roared over my head, lighting up the whole area and leaving a burning smoke trail behind it. I squeezed harder, and took off after it. I thought I should be going faster. After all, Ironman can fly at the speed of sound (I think). I instinctively felt around for a "boost" button, and found one on the front of each handle. I pressed them both hard, and immediately shot forward at a crazy speed. My head was thrown backwards with the initial accelleration, but I quickly got used to it. I could still see the meteor in the distance, and I was gaining on it. I noted that this was probably the fastest I'd ever flown in a lucid dream, and I was worried I might destabilise the dream like this. Luckily though, I was deep enough asleep for the g-force not to disturb me. I don't know what speed I flew at, but I estimate I was flying over about fifteen large houses per second, if that's any indication. The meteor hit the ground ahead of me, and I landed beside the crater. It had broken open an entire street, and busted water pipes were spraying everywhere. I don't really remember what happened next, but I lost lucidity, and ended up on the run from the law.

Me and my (very) Irish accomplice managed to evade the police and escape down to the beach. (We were apparently in a coastal holiday town) The "beach" was no more than big black rocks covered in seaweed. We spied a tiny fishing boat resting on some high-up rocks, and ran over to it, hoping to escape out to sea. When we got there however, we saw that it had been converted into a pub! Instead of a steering wheel there were draught taps for Guinness and Carlsberg, and the boat itself was actually cemented to the rocks. The bartender shouted something about a storm coming, and all the patrons left. Most of them were grizzled old sea-dogs. I didn't look closely, but I could have sworn one of them had a wooden leg. We stepped inside once it was empty, and closed the shutter-like doors behind us.
"This thing will never sail," I said.
"Sure it will, just wait till the water gets high enough," he replied. After a short wait, huge waves started crashing over the rock wall which sheltered the boat. Sea water leaked in through the floorboards and washed around my feet. Luckily though, no more come in, and the water outside only pushed the boat upwards. At last, it broke free of the concrete, and started floating. We cheered. My companion somehow got the engine started, and the pub/boat chugged out into open sea.

After a while of being battered by the waves, more water leaked in, and came up to my waist. I remembered my phone.
"Shit!" I took it out of my jeans pocket and wiped it off. It was fine. I stuck it inside my hood for safekeeping. Can not believe I missed the "wet phone" dreamsign again!

27.03.2010

Zoo Party (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I had a good night's sleep last night for the first time in like a week, and woke up at 12pm. Having not managed a WILD for a good while, I decided to have a go. I didn't really have a technique in mind when I started, I just got comfy on my left side and let my mind wander. Visualisations came quite easily after 25-ish minutes. They behaved kind of like a dream, but I wasn't actually asleep yet. I put myself into a random situation (which happened to be a trip to the zoo with friends) and watched the scene play out. It was like a very vivid daydream, but it had dreamlike qualities. People around me had conversations and did things without any direction from me. I stood and watched for the most part, occasionally touching something, but never speaking (because I could still feel my body and was not yet in SP). I watched for a good while, doing small things like stroking a koala and intentionally avoiding some tarantulas which had gotten loose. It was an odd vision-daydream, not entirely controlled by my conscious mind. Kind of like the little dreamlets you get as you fall asleep, but often catch with your conscious mind and get shocked out of- except it was lengthy, and my conscious mind was involved every step of the way.

As the narrative progressed, I wound up at a crazier version of my school formal from last year. It was here that the daydream solidified into a proper dream. My guess is that SP finally kicked in here, and my mind had a "dream" premade, so I went straight in. There was a significant step up in both vividness and physical integration.
"Finally!" I said, and gave high-fives all round. I went straight to rubbing my hands to anchor myself, then walked around saying hi to people I knew. I had originally intended to do part of the task of the year, but it had slipped my mind in the excitement.

There were psychadellic disco lights flashing all around me, and it was a little bit difficult to see. Well, no more difficult to see than if I was in a club, but I'd like a bit more clarity from my dreams! I went a bit mad and tried to organise a huge orgy with all the best-looking girls from my year (what's a guy to do), but I stopped for a second. It all seemed incredibly realistic, and I thought about the possibility that I really was at a formal, and just really wasted. I thought back, and remembered what I thought to myself as I lay down in bed earlier,
"Until I'm getting out of this bed again, nothing is real." This comforted me, but also made me think of my real body lying in bed. Realising my mistake, I ran around trying to grab something, but I was in the middle of the dancefloor and miles from a decent surface! Raging at myself, I was pulled out of the dream.

23.03.2010

Floating Down to the Beach Once More (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

At last I've broken my dry spell! I had to really concentrate to become lucid in this one though. Even weirder was the fact that I thought I woke up and wrote this down in the middle of the night, when in fact it was just a false awakening. So now I can't remember it in nearly as much detail as I should.

I was at my old primary school, which was situated above a cliff path leading down to a beach. (Not in real life) It was a warm, very sunny day, and the beach was packed out with people. There were even people lining the path the whole way down. I was leaving the school wearing boardshorts, so I decided to head down there. I was jogging briskly, and dreaming sprang to mind. I remembered that if I was dreaming, I would be able to do massive floating jumps, and glide my way down the hill. My first jump was quite large, and it took me over the heads of some guys working at the top of the road. I became a bit lucid, but I didn't fully appreaciate that I was merely in a dream. I continued downhill (I think I was meeting friends down there or something). My gliding became quite strange; I seemed to fly like a frisbee. One of my flights took me out over the edge of the cliff, which was pretty terrifying! But I told myself that If I kept floating I would end up on solid land again, and that's what I did.

I don't recall much more after this, but I'm pretty sure I got on a bus dreamsign! which took me back uphill to a holiday house where I was supposed to be staying with my friends. I went inside, and found that it was the same bunch of dudes I had been to Portugal with last year. I was talking to a guy called Adam, then Brian came in. It was here that I spontaneously decided to do the hand reality-check. At first, it looked like I had maybe seven fingers. I was like, "Whoa, guys I think this might be a dream." However their disbelieving reactions were enough to make me have a second look. This time there was no question. I meticulously counted nine fingers on my left hand. I poked each one as I counted it, and all of them had feeling in them. I was a lot more lucid this time than earlier. Everything seemed almost too real to be a dream though, and it was hard to hold on to the lucidity. I got out my phone (I got the correct model this time) and tried to call somebody, but I woke up!

Luckily, I had the presence of mind not to move, so I did a lazy DEILD. I didn't even bother visualising anything, and I was soon back in. As soon as I was in, I did a few leg stretches to anchor myself. I can't remember what happened next at all.

13.03.2010

Sprinting (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

It's weird typing this now. A minute ago I was sprinting continuously for about ten minutes. I can't actually believe I managed to WILD this morning. Conditions were less than perfect. I'd already had a good night's sleep, my blinds were open (letting in bright light), and my bedroom door was open (letting in a loud conversation and piano playing).

One thing going my way though was extreme drowsiness. For the third time in my life, I got trapped in sleep paralysis as I woke up. I wrote about my last waking episode in my very first post on Dreamviews (it was what led me here). I knew where I was, and the position I was lying in, and basic things like light levels in the room. I could also hear a conversation going on downstairs. -I've written down the main points of this conversation and I'll go check if what I heard was real or imagined after I type this up. It just felt like I couldn't force myself to emerge to full wakefulness, like forced laziness is the only way I can describe it. Mentally, I was trying to move, but all my limbs seemed to have lost their juice. Anyway, having missed out on lucidity in countless dreams last night, I thought I might as well use it to my advantage.

On my first attempt, I could gradually see the inside of a car. I was in the back seat, and it was driving along a road I know well. The funny thing was, I could still feel my body, and I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or closed. I opened my eyes a bit and could see slightly clearer, but I'm almost sure my real eyes opened too- they just weren't sending any input to my brain.

I woke up and the sleep paralysis broke. I rolled over and tried again. Quite quickly this time, I had a false awakening in my own bed. I can't be sure if I was still hearing conversations from downstairs, or my mind just invented a likely conversation to go along with the "awakening". I went downstairs and left through the front door as my mum was letting out whatever visitors were in the house. I'd love to know if their actual departure and my dream line up. I started running down the street, doing long floating jumps over bushes, people and cars. I thought about the task of the year, but the only one I could remember off the top of my head was "Give fire to Early Man". I didn't think I could hold the dream together long enough to do anything that complex, so I decided instead to just do some random exploration. When I got to the bottom of my street I turned right onto the larger road. But instead of the road I expected, I was surprised to find myself back on my own street- about a mile back along the road.
"Oh well," I said. My mouth still wasn't cooperating fully. I took off sprinting. The exertion really helped anchor me in the dream and made things around me clearer. I saw some unidentifiable roadkill at the side of the road, and then a Tesco supermarket which definitely isn't there in real life. It was in the position of an old industrial site. I was still sprinting, and actually taking deep breaths. I'm not sure what the point of that was, maybe to make the scenario more realistic, or to keep my heart rate down or something.



I got stuck behind a crowd of people outside Tesco. During that time, I decided to get out my phone. In my dream, I was wearing my dressing gown (which I guess I assumed I was wearing in real life, but wasn't), but I reached beneath it expecting to find my jeans- which I did. I felt inside the pocket, and pulled something out. I actually laughed out loud at the result. It looked like some kid had crudely nailed together several pieces of wood to make a giant replica of a phone. There were no buttons or a screen. However, there was a hole in the middle of it. I poked about inside and thought I felt something. I whacked the side of the big phone, and my ancient Nokia 3310 dropped out. It still had the green cover I put on it the last time I had it (in like 2002). When I tried to use it I woke up.

These are the subjects of the conversations I heard. I'll check if they were real and report back.
green lights
fireplace
Scott Joplin (composer)
orange

EDIT: Turns out they were talking about Scott Joplin, but the others were my imagination. Thinking about it, there were definitely some images associated with the others, I should have guessed they were made up.

11.03.2010

Tattoos (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I was running through a school I didn't recognise, trying to find a class I was late for. Earlier on in the dream, I had gotten several tattoos all over my body, and I was still only wearing my boxers. I had Bart Simpson on the back of my neck, A Xenomorph tramp stamp, a large Predator's fist blade down my left side, I need to play less of that game! and the lyrics to some emo song on my right side. I found my way into what looked like a "Technology" corridor, and something told me I was in the right place. I rounded a corner and saw some people I vaguely knew heading into a room, so I followed them. I became worried because I didn't have any books with me, and I was also in boxers, but then I realised everyone else was in the same boat!

Later on in the class, I was invited up to the front do some presentation. I walked calmly up, said hello to the class and stopped. I had no clue what I was supposed to have prepared! "What the hell...?" I murmured. I did a reality check. I looked at my left hand, and it was warped beyond recognition as a hand. One of the fingers had become a piece of wood on the end of a green string. I was dreaming! That explained a lot. I remembered then that I didn't even go to school any more, this whole scenario was made up. Unfortunately, the lucidity I got was not very high-level. I ended up showing off my tattoos to the class. They were all impressed.

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.

05.03.2010

Fully Lucid Zombie Pwnage (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This dream led on from the previous one. I definitely woke up in between and fell back to sleep normally.

I was with a group of about four people, walking along a rocky lane in the country. There was a rickety wooden fence at the side of the road, and a field going uphill at the other. There was one other man, a middle-aged woman with browny/red hair, someone else I can't remember, and my friend Darren. It was late evening, and getting quite dark when I heard sirens coming from behind us. I turned to look. In the distance I saw a crowd of people running down a hill onto the road, persued by several police cars. Darren panicked, automatically assuming the police were going to arrest him, so he took off running. As the crowd reached us, I stepped aside and sat on the fence to make it clear to the persuing officers that I was not with them. Right as they got to us, the crowd collectively changed direction and headed into the field. Then they stopped. The police cars drew level with us and stopped. They got out and looked at us. I felt very uncomfortable because none of the officers or indeed the crowd were making any noise, just staring at us. Then, all at once, their eyes went completely white, dead-looking.
"Fuck!" I yelled. "Zombie trap!" The crowd jumped out of the field and together with the police officers, advanced on us. Our group hopped over the rickety fence and ran downhill. I hoped everyone else would keep up and stay together, as I kind of felt responsible for their safety. We came to a tall, barbed-wire fence, on the other side of which was what looked like a prison. We started to climb, but it was slow going as it was difficult to hold on to. The guy with us (whose name escapes me) said,
"Is it possible these people are just yanking our chain and aren't actually zombies?" I looked down at the baying hordes trying to get a grip on my ankle and said,
"Not a chance." The top of the fence was particularly spikey, but my self-preservation instinct was much stronger than my desire to not cut myself on it, so I grabbed it and hauled myself over. It was then that I realised I wasn't hurt at all. I felt no pain when grabbing the viciously sharp wire. I did a hand reality-check, and said, "Of course it's a dream! Come on!" I gestured to the group to follow me. We ran across the grass towards the prison, and then locked ourselves in the first out-building we came to. Every building looked like it was made of rusty iron. I made sure the door was locked, then made sure everyone was still with us.



Right here I woke up. I wasn't done there by any means, so I went for a DEILD. I visualised myself going over to a table where the browny/red-haired woman was sitting. I paid close attention to the pressure of the ground on my feet. Then I picked up a sheet of paper and slowly ripped it up, listening closely to the sound, and feeling my arm muscles moving. Overall, it was probably the least effort I've ever put into a DEILD, and was the easiest yet.

The scene solidified, and became "real". The woman looked up at me strangely.
"I'm back," I said. "That was a dream-exit induced lucid dream. Good eh?" She grinned. I immediately got to work trying to find weapons of mass zombie destruction. The little building didn't have much to offer, except a gas canister. I'd seen Dawn of the Dead, and now had a plan in mind. I picked up the canister and went to the door. There was a window on the door's top half. I looked out to see that most of the zombies were congregating on a grassy area in the middle of the facility. It looked like morning. A female zombie was searching for us, looking round corners and squinting through grimy windows. As she approached the door I burst out and clunked her on the head with the canister. She looked to be dead. I strode purposefully to the centre of the zombie crowd and held the canister high.
"Hey everybody!" I yelled. "Food!!" Every single undead head in the area turned towards me as I threw it on the ground. Incredibly, they fell for it and started piling on. I took several steps back and waited. From the sidelines, I could see cracks appearing in the canister, and gas hissing out in liquid and gaseous form. Then I realised I had no way to make it explode. No matches, no gun, nothing. I would have to use some dream powers. I concentrated hard on the barrel, imagining it to be incredibly volatile and delicate. I held out my arm slowly and snapped my fingers. BOOM! Combustion! The force of the blast knocked me off my feet. Any zombies who weren't now minced by the explosion were thrown back too. I got up faster than any of them, ready for some hand-to-hand combat. The first woman I came across had already been badly damaged by flying shrapnel, and I clotheslined her head off. A large man came charging at me, and I rock-bottomed him onto the bonnet of a brown car nearby. His head smashed through the windscreen.

I can't remember exactly what happened next, but I decided to have another go at time travel. I wound up back in the suburban neighborhood from the previous dream, and asked the old man if I could try his time machine again. He agreed, and I sat down in the green chair once again. I noticed that my legs were very uncomfortable for some reason, and I shifted position many times. Turned out, my legs were sore in real life, and woke me up!

05.03.2010

Supernatural Investigation and Searching for a Time Machine (WILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Lately, I've been watching a lot of the TV show "Supernatural" online. This dream was structured not unlike an episode! I might not have been lucid from the very start of this dream, but I can't remember that far back, or the transition into the dream.

I had teamed up with Sam and Dean Winchester, and we were conducting an investigation in a small rural town. Whatever/whoever we were hunting was holed up in a petrol station, and we were on the roof- ready to enter through a vent and kick some ass. It was a cloudy, drizzly day, and as I silently opened a hatch, I was glad to be getting inside. I lowered myself carefully into the vent with both hands, and positioned myself on my knees, hunched over and gun ready. As soon as my full weight was settled, the vent collapsed around me and fell into the shop. I ended up sprawled on my back on top of a counter, surrounded by men with guns. Luckily Sam and Dean immediately opened fire from above, distracting the guys who would otherwise have plugged me. I did a backwards roll off the counter and took shelter. I had lost my gun in the fall. Bullets whizzed past my head in all directions, and the blasting of gunfire so close to me was disorienting. Finally, the shooting stopped and I poked my head up.

Sam and Dean were now downstairs with me, pointing their guns at a pile of rubble next to a freezer, where the last guy was hiding. I got up and picked up a sawnoff shotgun from the floor.
"Come on out!" I said. The guy nervously stood up with his hands in the air. He then treated us to a whole monologue about not measuring up, and finished by telling us he was going to kill himself by lethal injection. He produced from his pocket an injector-gun, which had about seven capsules attached to the side. He shot himself up three times before I wrestled the injector off him. After a quick examination, I somehow inferred that it was "Hulk Juice". One dose was apparently enough to turn you into The Hulk! I could see the dude was already bulking up and turning green, and by the time he reached nine feet tall, I decided on the only possible form of defense. I shot the remaining four doses directly into my chest. I reasoned that, having taken more, I would be a stronger Hulk. Right away I felt the serum reacting with my body. My chest felt tight, but I could see that it was in fact bulking up at an alarming rate. It felt like I was made of rocks. The feeling quickly spread to my arms and legs, all the way to my fingertips- which ended up the size of baseball bats. I realised I had an enormous armspan, like four metres- and I could stretch even farther. I punched the slightly smaller Hulk in the top of the head to begin the fight. I can't remember much about what happened next, we broke through the wall of the petrol station and I remember chasing him up a narrow street.



The next section of the dream played out like another investigation. This time I was on my own in suburbia, investigating a case of a dog which was actually a human in disguise. There was one particualar chihuahua which I reckoned looked particularly human-like, so I kept an eye on it. I was sitting at a kitchen table talking to a homeowner who was making me tea, staring at the dog. It noticed me and ran out the back door.
"Hold that thought," I said to the woman and ran after it. It ran along the street and jumped over a very noticable pothole, filled with water. I made a point to stand right in it. The water disappeared to reveal a bottomless hole. I deduced that the dog was leading people to their deaths by making them fall in. I became lucid after doing a hand reality-check out of the blue. I was extremely aware, and even remembered the task of the year on Dreamviews. The remaining six parts would all be much easier if I had access to a time machine. It's really hard for me to teleport or change scene on my own, so I reasoned that letting the dream do the work might work better for me.

I took a running jump and glided up onto the roof terrace of the first house I saw. The residents were having a barbecue with some neighbours. I landed among them, and was tempted to just sit down and enjoy some ribs (they smelt fantastic), but I'd been neglecting the tasks lately. I greeted the guy I assumed to be the host, and asked him straight out,
"Have you got a working time machine I could use?" I asked him in a serious manner, in a way that showed I expected it to be a realistic request. He said,
"No, sorry, I don't. But my nextdoor neighbour does, why don't you go ask him?" I was pleased with this response. I hopped off the roof and into next door's back garden, where I saw the neighbour in question. He was an old man tending his garden. I asked about the time machine, and he seemed very pleased that it was going to get some use. He explained that his family rarely made use of it. He led me to the garden shed, against the back fence.
"Go ahead, knock yourself out," he said, gesturing at the door. I opened the door and stepped inside. It was very small, and what little floor space it had was taken up by a thick green armchair, sitting at a desk. Below the desk was an enormous old desktop computer. It had a few purple lights on it, and was connected to a dusty monitor on top of the desk. I pressed the only button I could find, the main "power" button on the computer. It booted up instantly and started to work.
"Where or when do you wanna go?" the man asked from behind.
"Back," I said. "I want to go back 65 million years."
"Say whaaat??"
"Don't ask," I chuckled.
"Okay, input here," said the old man, handing me a number pad. I pressed the "minus" button at the top, then six, five, zero zero zero, zero zero zero, enter.
"Good luck!" he shouted, and shut the door. The screen came to life. It displayed a weird animation I can only describe as several coloured balls rolling through a black tunnel. It looked a bit like guitar hero in reverse. I concentrated intently on the visualization, but sadly I woke up!

04.03.2010

Bug Hunt (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I was playing the new Aliens vs Predator game the other day, no doubt that was the cause of this dream.

I was a marine, hunting Xenomorphs in an estate near my house. It was night time, and no streetlights were working. All I had for light was a torch attached to the end of my rifle. Every now and again I would catch a glimpse of movement out of the corner of my eye, or a reflective glint of light bouncing off a shiny alien head, but I never got a clear shot at one of them. I was getting quite panicky, and using up a lot of ammo, hitting nothing. I eventually got to my last clip when I arrived at the top of a dark lane which I knew to be dodgy in normal circumstances, never mind when there were aliens about. I made my way down the lane. There were wire fences on either side of me, and behind the fence to my right was a hedge wall. I could hear scuttling and hissing coming from the other side of it. I attained some low level lucidity here. I recognised that it was just a dream, but only really enough to allay my fears of getting chomped on by an alien's mouth-within-its-mouth. Then I saw one clearly for the first time. It came into view just a few metres in front of me. I squeezed the trigger and let off the last of my ammo into its oversized head. It cracked like an eggshell, and I was careful to avoid the spray of its acidic blood. I threw down my empty gun just as another alien hopped over the fence from my left. I notice that I sometimes have great dream control with only minor lucidity. This was one of those times. I discovered that I could shoot fire out the end of my hands if I held them out flat and aimed at a target. I knew from playing the AvP game that the aliens hated fire, and I thought it was quite handy that I should manifest this ability at that moment.



I went on for a while, chargrilling aliens as I walked down the lane. They properly sizzled. When I was near the bottom, I heard a commotion from my right. I paused to investigate, and saw that several aliens had made a hole in the hedge and were trying to pull down the fence to get at me. I was in a "bring it on" kind of mood, so I just let them. The fence fell to reveal an open field beyond. I ran out into the middle, and was instantly surrounded by variations of the alien. One particularly unusual form looked a lot like a millipede. I woke up as they overwhelmed me!

02.03.2010

House (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID



I was walking home from a set of shops which was about five miles from my house. It was a beautiful sunny day, with a light breeze. I was walking through a suburban neighbourhood, when my friend Darren rang me. We started talking as I walked. A little bit farther along the street, I passed some of the cast of the tv show House. I've never watched an episode of House, and this got me thinking about why I would even run into him here. Then I remembered where I had seen him last- in the signature picture of one of the Dreamviews forum members! He must have gotten stuck in my head, and was making an appearance in my dreams now! I did a quick hand-RC, which confirmed my suspicions. I was still pretty far from my house, in an area which I barely knew. I wanted to get to somewhere there would be some more action, like a friend's house, my own, or the city centre. I decided not to do anything drastic, and just keep making my way towards home. It seemed a shame to waste such a nice day. I stayed on the phone to Darren, mentioned that I was dreaming and just saw Hugh Laurie, and started hovering. I got to waist-height, and flew off. I used my new flying technique, which is to imagine a force pushing me from behind. I can usually get up quite a lot of speed this way. I told Darren about my progress, and that I was on the way to see him- if I could just get there before I woke up. I was flying in the upright position down a hill, and wanted to take a shortcut over a fence and across a field (which would cut a massive corner), but I couldn't make myself go high enough to get over the fence! I told Darren about this and he responded with,
"Bad times, man."

02.03.2010

Incredibly Real FA (WBTB)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I was up for about half an hour, taking out rubbish and tidying stuff up, tiring stuff. I went back to bed with the intention of WILDing. It felt like a lot longer, but it took about 40 minutes to get anywhere- judging by the clock when I woke up.

I got into a lucid dream which I can't remember at all. This was quite a bit before another set of dreams, and my memory of this one has deteriorated somethin' shockin'.

I had a false awakening in my old house. This should initially have been enough to make me lucid, but I got one of those strange "false memories", which had me convinced that this was where I had fallen asleep. In reality, I havn't been in that house in three years. I really did think about the possibility of a false awakening, but it was so convincing that I just didn't bother reality-checking! I went to the window and looked out. It was night time. I blinked and opened my eyes widely, and woke up for real.

I went for a DEILD. I hadnt quite woken up, but I knew where I was actually sleeping, and could just see the dark grey of the back of my eyelids. I gave no outward indication that I had woken up. I didn't change my breathing, shift position, or even twitch. This time, I didn't do my standard DEILD process of "tactile entry", but acted as if I was trying to do a standard WILD. I.e. just lie very still. I noticed sleep paralysis very quickly. I think it could have lasted up to ten minutes. During this time, I opened my eyes slightly, because I was pretty sure this wouldn't affect my progress. It didn't, and it was pretty weird to peek at the outside world while in such a deep trance. At one point, my face got itchy. I moved my arm up to scratch it. I felt my arm lift, and my nails on my cheek. The itch went away. It was only as I tried to put my arm back that I realised I hadn't actually moved at all. I had been moving my "dream body", and my arm was paralysed. The most bizzare thing was that I had used my non-physical body to successfully scratch an itch!



I eventually went into another dream, which I've also forgotten.

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!