non-lucid

15.02.2010

Being a DC (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I've often wondered about the nature of dream characters, or DCs. Are they manifestations of subconscious desires, real people you meet on the "astral plane", artificial intelligence created by our mind but nonetheless "real", or simply meaningless characters like those in a video game. My personal view lands me somewhere between those last two options.

This was an peculiar dream which gave me a greater appreciation of and interest in DCs.

A man who I vaguely knew (not in real life) was going to die, and his doctors had decided to put him in a coma in order that he could live out his remaining hours in a "lucid dream" state. I was at his bedside with a few of his friends when they put him in the coma, and I then shared a taxi home with them. Before we left, the doctors told us that he would not wake up again, and it was an absolute mathematical certainty that he would die in a couple of hours. We were driving past (of all places) my old school, when I thought I saw him outside on the footpath. I made the driver stop the car, and the three of the man's friends and I got out to look. Sure enough, it was him. He was standing at the side of the road, just staring as if deep in thought.



We were about to go over and talk to him to see what was going on, but I put out my arm to stop the others.
"Wait," I said. "Didn't the doctors tell us that there was no chance he was going to wake up, the condition is irreversible et cetera? Logically, if he is here, seemingly fine, then this must be his dream!" The others thought for a minute, then slowly came to the same conclusion I had. There was no room for shades of grey in this dream, if something was stated as fact, it was. So using the facts I had been given, I formed the only logical conclusion. I was someone else's DC. I checked my hand, but it seemed normal.
"Of course it's normal," I thought. "Dream characters aren't supposed to be able to tell they're only part of a dream, but some of the smarter ones do work it out." I may have been on the cusp of a major epiphany about life here...

I also concluded that my entire life, memories, experiences had not really happened, except to me- and that my life was basically meaningless. This was not the depressing thought I expected it to be. I accepted it, and wondered whether I should inform the man that he was dreaming. In the end I made up my mind that I should. If he was lucid, he would have a much better time, I was sure of it.

It is true, dreams can have a profound effect on how you view life and reality. -Even if it's just an interesting thought exercise.

10.02.2010

Ice Ice Baby (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This was an odd dream, where I was lucid from the start and just kind of went with it. The earliest part I can remember is emerging from below deck on a sailboat. It was a clear night, and I was alone on the boat. Looking over the side, I could see that the boat was moving extremely fast. There was no wind, and the boat left very little disturbance in the water behind it.
"Who's steering this?" I thought. Right then, the boat veered off course and headed straight for a mysterious rock wall in the middle of the sea- which rose up out of nowhere. I charged back to the steering wheel and spun it hard to the right, just in time to avoid the rocks. Unfortunately it then went into a spin, and by the time I had lined up the wheel again, I had crashed into an ice shelf.

I might have woken up here. There's a bit of missing time, but the next thing I remember is chronologically right after the previous paragraph.

I climbed down the front of the boat onto the ice. It was now daytime, and the reflection of the sun on the ice was making everything seem very white. I stumbled on, and lost lucidity after a bit. I soon arrived in a small town. One minute I was in a frozen wasteland, then I glanced up and there were wooden buildings all around me. It looked a bit like an inuit settlement. I saw a vending machine through a frozen shop window, and went inside to take a look. For some reason, the vending machine sold not food, but DVDs. I "recognised" one of the movies (which, when I woke up, realised did not actually exist), and tried to buy it unsuccessfully. The machine was full of ice. The shop attendant walked up beside me, and we had an interesting conversation. I can't remember the details, but it turned out he was some sort of demon/vampire fellow. He explained that (whatever he was) were very misunderstood, and proceeded to show me some of his special abilities. He could phase through solid objects, and levitate himself as well as things around him. The demon guy spotted a friend of his pulling up outside in a black truck. We went outside to talk to him. I was introduced, then the friend began to tell us something important. Right as he started talking, a huge angry cop came out from behind his truck and shot him with a strange kind of tranquilizer. It fired a tiny needle (which found its target in the truck-owner's neck) which injected a freezing agent. The man froze solid from an expanding area around his neck. He tried to run away, but the slowing effect of the ice eventually stopped him dead. The cop laughed cruelly and turned to the demon guy and I. He said something terribly offensive to me (which I cannot recall now) and shot me with the freezer gun. He got me right in the chest, and I quickly felt the tight, slowing sensation of the ice spreading out to my limbs. Then I realised that the very idea of a "freezer gun" was absurd. I was still icing up, so I used all my strength to get over to the cop and grab his arm. I forced all the coldness in my body down that arm, transferring it to him. He froze like an ice cube in a couple of seconds, his face frozen in anger. Free of the slowing effect, I used my newfound strength to punch him in the stomach. He snapped in two, then the two pieces hit the ground and shattered.



The demon guy looked at me strangely.
"I guess you must be a demon too!" he laughed. "Follow me." He ran up the street lightning fast and I found I was able to keep up with him. Next, we took off into the air. It started raining. The rain was quite warm, and made of small droplets. We flew around in the rain for a few minutes. The feeling of the droplets hitting me was incredibly real. I looked down, and saw that all the snow had melted. The snow's absence revealed grass and bright flowers.

06.02.2010

Driving Practice (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I've only ever driven a car once before, a couple of years ago, and I'm due to start lessons soon, so it was on my mind.

I was driving down a not-very-busy road, but kept stalling. I remembered how to start the car and get it going. Although I can't remember now what order I did any of it in. I put the gearstick in neutral, held down the clutch, turned the key, then eased on the accelerator and let out the clutch... or something like that. The car started anyway.

06.02.2010

Ice Hockey (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I was playing in an ice hockey match, except the rules were more like baseball. There was a batting team and a fielding team. Everyone still used hockey sticks and a puck though. I was very poorly equipped, and had to keep switching pads with people getting subbed in and out.

One time while I was waiting on the bench, Wayne Rooney sat down beside me. I talked to him for a bit, then took a photo with him. A whole bunch of my friends jumped in as well. The photo was really crap quality, and I had to retake it.

Later, I was back on the ice, and managed to stop a home run by blocking the puck with an un-padded area of my shin. It didn't hurt at all, which I should have questioned more. A few other times, I stretched out and missed the puck by inches. I didn't really expect myself to be able to do it, and funnily enough, I couldn't.

I'm going to have to add "Celebrities" to my list of dreamsigns along with "Wet Phone". It was very useful to write in my DJ about the wet phone dreamsign, as it seemed to really solidify it in my head, and I got lucid off it a couple of times since then.

03.02.2010

Skydiving!! (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Awesome dream.

I was on holiday with about 30 other people. We were sitting around a swimming pool under parasols. I can't remember much about this part. The next thing I remember is one of the holidaymakers, who was a professional animator, knitted a hot air balloon in about 20 seconds. It was a strange design, made of wool, and it could carry all of us. We were all attached to harnesses which were then attached by ropes to the balloon section itself. (Diagram below!) In the beginning, the balloon was no more than a big flat pile of wool we were all attached to, but it lifed up from the middle, and rose up in the air very quickly.


M=Me, D=Donovan


Soon we were miles high, and I could see for hundreds of miles around. The ground was largely green, with a few small towns, and two mountains in the distance. The guy piloting the balloon was called Donovan. He was roped on at the very bottom middle, where the basket would normally be. He shouted,
"Everyone ready?" and everyone replied,
"Yes!" He pulled a cord, and the balloon split. We were in freefall. 30 of us, roped together. It was the most exhilerating experience ever. (makes me want to do real skydiving) The ground was spinning far below us. For a few seconds, I went into a head-first dive. It became scary, so I closed my eyes. Then I thought closing my eyes was a waste of the view, so I opened them again.

It was then that I realised I didn't have a parachute. In fact, no one did, except Donovan. Apparently the plan was for him to open his own parachute, which was big enough to take all of us. We fell closer and closer to the earth. I could see individual houses quite clearly.
"Donovan, NOW!" somebody shouted. Still he waited. I thought,
"This could very well be it, I might die here." The thought was strangely liberating. It looked like we were going to land in a large field near a village. Right at the last second, Donovan pulled the ripcord and the parachute opened. Since he was a few metres below me, and there was a few metres of rope between him and me, I had to fall another 7 or so metres before I felt the almighty tug of the parachute and I was saved from death only a metre above the ground. I slammed into the grass with quite some force nonetheless, but my ass took the impact. A few others weren't so lucky, as all around me people thudded straight into the ground. They got up unhurt, and I was ecstatic from the experience.

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.

29.01.2010

Vampire Invasion (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This was a really long dream where I gained and lost lucidity five or six times. Unfortunately I can only remember fragments.

A meeting was called between all the people in a town to discuss what to do about vampires, who were growing in number in the area. Most of the group was made up of militant rednecks, shouting "Yee-haw" and firing off shotguns. Eventually the decision was made that we should go to war with them. On the way out of the building, everyone was having their picture taken and retinas scanned, to make ID cards. I was next in the queue, but people kept taking my place. When I finally got to the machine, I entered my name. Then another guy came along and had his picture taken. The machine had recorded that I was an overweight hillbilly wearing nothing but dungarees. When I was the last one in the room, I tried again, but the operator thought everyone was done, so he put the camera away. I yelled at him and thought,
"This is ridiculous." I became lucid. I can't remember much of what I did next, but I have memories of running outside and getting laid into some vampires. I tore off jaws, decapitated, and punched clean through a whole crowd of them. One sick sight I came across was a naked guy strapped to a cart. Somebody had bitten his dick off, and a vampire woman was pushing him around the streets as a free meal for any vampires. Needless to say, I opened up a can of whoopass on her.

Later on, I found out about a group of women who had pimped out a bus and were going around killing vampires. They called themselves something like "Women Against Vampires", I can't remember it exactly. I stood in the middle of the road as their bus approached me. I had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit, and became lucid again. I ran behind the bus and jumped straight up on top of it. From there, I beat the shit out of several vampires who leapt on board as the bus was still going.

There was much, much more to this, but I can't remember it!

27.01.2010

Missed Opportunity! (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This dream was long and detailed, but I don't have a lot of time, so I can't write it all out. One part which stood out for me was the most ridiculous way I've missed becoming lucid ever.


Idiot

My dad was giving me a lift to my friend Hugh's house, which is about a 15 minute drive away. He somehow got there after 30 seconds, having only turned two corners and gone via a town 60 miles away. Later in the dream, I was telling some friends about the ride,
"It was amazing, like magic or something!" I laughed. My own stupidity astounds me...

23.01.2010

American Football (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I found myself in a huge changing room full of guys putting on all the padding and stuff they wear for American Football. Suddenly, the gear was being forced on me by somebody. I protested that I would get snapped like a twig (I'm a lanky fellow) in any contact sport, but they didn't listen. The stuff I put on was a lot more like ice-hockey gear than I expected- there was extensive leg padding.



Soon, the entire team lined up in front of the changing room doors, and filed through into what appeared to be a hall in a leisure centre. I had been expecting a stadium, or at least a field, but there was just a wooden floor and a really high celing. Somebody took out a ball and started throwing it about. An improvised game developed, where whoever had the ball was mauled by everyone around him, unless he could pass the ball to somebody else. I could barely see what was going on due to the helmet, and my mobility was so bad because of the padding that when the ball came to me, it was like being hit by like six trucks from all directions. This happened a few times before I realised I wasn't actually getting hurt, or even feeling any pain. The old me might have become lucid here, but I'm out of practice! I became more confident, and called out for the ball whenever I could. I knew in my head when somebody was about to pass to me, and knew that I would be able to pull off some great skill from now on. It was a strange sort of knowledge, like I knew the story of this dream (say I had read it before or something), and now I was just acting it out. One throw which came to me, I caught behind my back and threw it on before anyone realised what was happening. Good times.

Later on in the dream, we folded away one of the hall's walls to combine it with a neighboring hall and make one giant room. The other hall had previously been used as a supermarket for some reason, but the only section left was the drink section. I slid around (the floor was really smooth) and picked up a pack of Budweiser. I don't think I ever got a chance to drink it though.

23.01.2010

Rihanna Plays Halo 2 (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID



I was in my old caravan, playing Halo 2 on my old Xbox. My brothers were sitting around me. Althought I can barely remember Halo 2, my mind recreated it quite faithfully. It was definately a bit harder to play than its sequel. I was pwning away, when I looked to my right to see Rihanna walking up the steps and into the caravan. I greeted her and asked if she wanted to join in. If I had been lucid, my offer would have been very different! lol She sat down and took a spare controller.

The next thing I knew, hordes of paparazzi were banging on the window, and a huge searchlight was glaring through the blinds. It was disrupting my view of the game, so I closed the curtains. Unfortunately it was so bright it even shone through that.

The next thing I remember, I was actually in the game, physically playing from first person perspective. I went in for a few melee attacks, and physically moved my own arm to do so. Since I had complete control over my own body, I was punching the other players much more accurately. I frequently went for the nose or groin for maximum ownage. Rihanna was playing shit.

21.01.2010

Stacey's Mom (DILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I've been way off my game lately, both in regard to journaling and lucid dreaming in general. An email I got today confirming the dispatch of my book got me back in the mood, so here I am!

I was upstairs on a double decker bus (dreamsign!) but I didn't become lucid right away. Some of my friends were sitting around in seats in front of me, and there was music playing. I can't remember the song, but it was definately in the genre of "Rock". The bus took a sharp turn onto a steep hill and picked up speed. Looking out the big window at the front, I was reminded of a dream I had a few nights ago, where I was riding a charging buffalo. It went insanely fast, and I noted that I had the same perception of excessive speed right now as I had then. As the bus went even faster, the top deck swayed a bit, and I began to question reality. I was lucid, but I felt like I wasn't lucid enough. Like I wasn't completely "there". To reinforce myself, I did the hand reality check, but it didn't have the usual effect of surprising me into consciousness. It was a strange state of mind, to know that this wasn't real, but not being able to bring my waking mind to operational level in the dream. I suppose I'm out of practice. The song that had been playing went into a lower-intensity section, where just the main beat could be heard. I noticed that the beat could be used to exactly fit in the intro from "Stacey's Mom", by Fountains of Wayne. You know that part at the start where it just repeats, "Stacey's mom, has got it goin' on". I started singing it, and the whole bus picked it up and sang along. I made a mental note to see if such a mix existed in real life and download it, but when I remembered about the dream later in the day, I couldn't figure out what the original song had been.

11.01.2010

Floating on Air (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

This was an odd one. I'll say semi-lucid.

I had just "woken up" from a lucid dream. I can't remember if it was actually a lucid dream or my subconscious had just planted that in my mind to be part of the dream plot. Anyway, I woke up in a very modern, open-plan house. Most of the walls had huge windows in them, or were just made of glass. There was a garden with palm trees outside, and it was night time. I thought about what a sweet dream I had just finished, and thought about trying to carry over the ability of flight into the real world. I wandered throughout the downstairs of the house, up and down small steps, gliding and floating a bit. I thought it wasn't as good as I had been doing in the dream, but I was doing some definite levitation. Strange how this didn't turn me properly lucid!

04.01.2010

Obstacle Course (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

Me and a load of other people were being chased through an obstacle course by someone evil. (No idea who) I was behind a few people on a rope bridge, coming up to a wall which had a "rope net" draped over it. I kept telling them to hurry up, but they were intolerably slow. When we got to the rope wall, I pushed my way past those in front, and took a shortcut across the bottom.

The next stage was a very long slide. It was a tube going down in a spiral route, with a diameter of about 5m. There were dozens of other people sliding down as well. We weren't going very fast, and everyone was just lying back talking to each other. I noticed a girl I knew, who was slowly passing me. We had an interesting conversation which I now can't remember.

04.01.2010

Swooping and Swimming (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I'm not sure whether to say this was a DILD or non-lucid. I kind of knew it was a dream, and I did a lot of cool stuff, but I wouldn't say I was really I, if you know what I mean.

I was in my old house, in the early hours of the morning. It might have been around 4 or 5 am. Still dark anyway. I looked out my bedroom window to see that my dad was driving off. He went out the bottom of the driveway and took a right. I climbed out my window and jumped off the roof to fly after him. I had the same kind of flight ability as I usually have, which is like that of a paper aeroplane- mainly just a glide. I wasn't quite catching up, so I tried skating on the ground, which was icy. I had a good thing going, as I skate-glided behind my dad's car. I was feeling confident so I leapt up in the air. I soared about the height of four houses and got that familiar "shitI'mfalling" sensation in my stomach after reaching the peak. I landed farther up the road, behind a chain of cars driving ridiculously slowly. There were a few people walking along the footpath to my left, so I joined them. We walked for a good while, and every now and then I would swoop out onto the road and glide over a few cars. I found I could fly a lot better when the wind was coming from behind me. When it was against me, I made my arms into a streamlined shape in front of me and I could cut through it.

It was getting closer and closer to daylight as I glided along the road, and before I knew it, it was morning and I was at my old school. It had been turned into a leisure centre. I jumped onto the rear bumper of a car and rode in. I passed a fantastic swimming pool which had massive slides, a glass roof over half of it, and enormous brown statues down the other end. The next thing I knew, I was in the pool. I was floating on my back, looking up at the glass roof, and imagined it moving up and down. Then it did. I found I could make things happen around me with very little effort. Strangely, this was the part of the dream where I was the least lucid. The other people in the pool were getting annoyed at me. I told them it wasn't my fault, I couldn't help it, but they didn't listen and kept shouting at me. Becuase I was pissed now, I made a huge statue come to life and roar at them. Its head was hundreds of metres above the pool, staring down. I concentrated on it, it shook off a bit off dust, then its eyes glowed red. It stood up to its full height (it had been bending over looking down before) and roared. Next I made the entire swimming pool become a whirlpool, which I found great fun, but nobody else did. I let myself get sucked underwater and found I could breathe. There were bubbles swirling all round me, and I thought I might get pulled to the surface again which I didn't want. I liked the quiet underwater. I made myself heavier and my feet touched the bottom.


The rest, I can't remember very well, but I think I went into the changing rooms and got dressed.

03.01.2010

Playing Football for NI (Non-lucid)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I dreamt that I had fallen asleep in Windsor Park, the Northern Ireland team's stadium. When I woke up, the players were walking out onto the pitch to start a match, and I went with them. The match started very quickly, and I had a moment of horror when I realised I was supposed to be the goalkeeper. The net was basically undefended, so I ran (awkwardly) towards it. On the way, the ball came to me, and I pulled off some incredible skill to take it around four players before passing it.

I finally got back to my net, pleased with my skilfulness. My skill is non-existent in real life. The ball kept getting blasted at me and I kept saving it with ease. The other team decided to bring on some distractions for me, in the form of naked cheerleaders. They were two girls I know, and they started dancing at the sides of my net, trying to catch my eye. In the end I thought "Screw the match", and exited with them.