The Mind is Power; My Dream Journal

Too tired to write down my dreams last night. These two were from the night before.

I'm working at brew and grow and it's crowded. Alex and mike are working in back and I'm alone up front. I'm helping one customer and then a small group walks in and stars asking questions. The lead guy is wearing some sort of rain coat. I start trying to help him and I realize that the computer isn't working properly and that our sales system seems really screwed up. As I'm talking another woman walks in and i glance over and ask if I can help her. She points behind me and tells me to tell president bush we have a roof leak. I smirk and tell her I can tell Obama. I then notice bow bad it's leaking and sprint to the back to ask Alex to help these customers because I'm so frustrated with the system that I'm about to cry. He does and I grab a ton of buckets and run back up front and start layin them out to catch the leak. One bucket has a ton of sand in it. The leak is pretty bad and then I notice mike crouching in front if the hop freezer with a basket of hops in his hands. He's putting them back in the freezer. I'm immediately frustrated because he ditched the counter duties to stock and I ask him if he's stocking. He says yeah and that a customer just left these there. I peak in the basket and it too is full of sand. I remember thinking that hops don't need to be constantly cold and he shoulda helped me anyways. I wake up.

Giant bathrooms in a mansion
I keep going to the biggest stall in the corner with my laptop and watching adult videos. Brazzerz. Kitty corner in another stall someone left their laptop in there. I go in Again and this time choose a tiny stall closer to the entrance. Once inside a video starts playing of pro bowl Tommy Harris in a locker room with some half naked chick doing a wwf style interview. Camera cuts ahead to a college football game where his team wins a super high scoring game and all the players leave the field and throw their cleats into the air and they land on their bus. The q.b threw for 187 yards 5 TDs and 3 int.

So I tried to WILD last night but that afternoon I'd gotten bitten to hell by mosquitos and I was constantly fighting the urge to scratch my legs (where I was bit up) and, as you probably know, being fidgety isn't conducive to trying to WILD. So after a while I just gave up and went to sleep. I recalled two dreams though which is nice:

So my realtor, John, for some reason is watching the store I manage (in real life) for me in the dream. I decide to go ahead and walk through the warehouse and to the back where there is a dumpster (just like in real life). Right next to the dumpster (not in real life) is a tall and flimsy basketball hoop. There's some dude there shooting a ball at it and he starts telling me how he saw Russel Westbrook outplay Kevin Durant in 1 on 1 basketball. I don't know, first of all, why they would play eachother as they are on the same team. But whatever. I'm not lucid so I go with it. For some reason I tell the guy that Kirk Hinrich and John Wall are going to be the best guard duo in the league next year (even though Hinrich is going to be riding the bench) and the dude chimes in: "Don't forget about (Keith) Bogans." And I add, "Or CJ Watson. Yeah." Even though those two players are not even on Hinrich/Walls team IRL.

The dumpster behind me, I remember, is full of old boxes. The guy I'm with starts bouncing the ball on the rim and I hear the door beep behind me (meaning a customer has entered the store). I go back in and storm to the front. For some reason I'm furious and I yell at John and tell him he ruined something or other and then I woke up.

Couple things: Basketball players and my IRL work are two major dream signs for me. I've known this. Before going to bed last night I even said to myself (until I fell asleep) "If I see a basketball player I will perform a reality check." I guess I didn't actually see anyone (just chatted about it) but it's interesting to note, at least.

Next dream:

So a dude comes to kidnap me while I'm in an altered version of my real life house. We're in a room (that doesn't exist IRL) and this guy comes rushing in. I have a bat at the ready and I take a giant swing at him. He pulls out what looks like a giant fluorescent bulb (that for some reason seems to come apart like tap) and starts attacking me with it. And then all of a sudden Leah and I are in a sort of run down casino/hotel looking place. There's a small food court looking area and a desk that is barred. There's a black guy behind it and he's running a giant lottery ball (where you pull a ball out of the jug and if it has your #, you win). I remember fighting the dude but I don't realize how we got where we are and I'm instantly distracted. I buy a lotto ticket and then Leah is hounding me to call the cops. So I try to dial 911 on the phone but for some reason it doesn't work. No matter how many times I try to dial it I always accidentally hit the wrong # or it just straight up doesn't work. And then for some reason I try 411. And suddenly, just like in my prior dream, I'm furious with Leah and as I'm on the phone we're fighting and cussing at eachother and it's just an ugly scene. I'm worried that the guy is still at our house and then that's really all I remember.

For how my routine works go ahead and hit up this thread. Otherwise let's just leap right into it.

Last night I went to bed a little bit later than I wanted to and I think I was a bit too tired to really maximize the effectiveness of my routine. I started to do my "countdown" trick before I went to sleep and I think I almost got into SP (my heart began to race, my body felt numb) and then I reality checked..and nothing. I tried again and ended up straight zonking out. I woke up again at 5:30 (when my WBTB alarm is set). For whatever reason I wasn't tired feeling so I had to make myself go back to sleep. And as I started to do my countdown... I passed out again.

Then I woke up at 8:30 and could only remember one dream. Pro: I could recall it. Con: It was pretty short.

Maybe I'm still recovering from trying to do the Infinity Course. That thing really messed with my sleep schedule...

It always wierds me out when dreams happen like this but I am suddenly in my dream, running down the court, playing basketball. Nobody says anything but I instantly perceive that I'm playing in an all star game. The gym is pretty stark. Big, but stark. Wood floors and plain white washed walls. There are two hoops. I know we are in the middle of a game but at any given time I can only see one or two people and never myself. OK. So I'm running down court and I pass the ball off to this tall white guy with darker black, and blond, streaked hair. He catches the ball and immediately puts up an awkward shot. The guy that came back to D him up gets the rebound and dribbles off. I know instantly that this guy is Darko Milicic. He is sweaty and looks very unsure of himself. I walk over to the guy and start giving him pointers. Telling him to just relax and calm down. And, when he gets the ball, just to slow the game down and put up a confident shot. I don't have a clue why I am giving him basketball tips when he's in the pros.

That's about all there was to the dream. Really short, written out like this, but it seemed to take up a lot of 'dream time'. Again I see my dream sign, basketball/basketball players, I really need to start doing RL reality checks whenever basketball is brought up. Hmm..

I dreamed I was swimming underwater. I can't remember using any breathing devices or anything. My friend Lawrence was leading the tour along with a few other people. Everything is tinted hazy blue.

We come to a narrow hallway with a large door at the end. The guys start moving towards it when I see a glowing parrot looking fish. I'm immediately told not to touch it because if I do it will kill me. So I evade it and we are helped through the gate.

Once through we are in an even larger area. There is a fairly narrow hallway sort of area that leads up s set of shallow steps and those steps lead into the wide open reef we came to see.

As we walk up the narrow steps I am stopped all of a sudden and someone points out a little hole in the base of the steps bi am told not go touch it because if I do it will come unplugged and suck me backwards and shoot me outta the room. That's good enough incentive for me to be careful.

With that in mind I continue forward and am constantly on edge not to touch anything. I see s semi large floating egg, about 12" long float by and I ask one of my guides If I'm allowed to touch the dragon egg even I'd just to save it from floating down the stairs and outta the room. The guide says no and as I watch the egg float by it flashes back and forth between the image of a fish and then back to the image of the egg.

For some reason Lawrence ends up getting way ahead of us and it's making the guides nervous. I tell them that I want to go back and they point towards the door at the end of the steps. I go to it and open it and then immediately I see the red parrot fish that kills on touch. It is alone in the vast blackness. I change my mind about leaving and turn back around.

I dream that a small group of people and I are heading down this steep forested hill. We reach the bottom and realize there is no true way out except climbing back up the other side of the bowl we climbed into. Before we do I take time to notice these absolutely gigantic trees that seem to tower over everything and while I do that I notice the spiders.

The spiders are gigantic and they have weaved a giant web around the entirety if the forrested bowl we walked into. I scream bur our leader ignores it and begins to climb up the side and past the enormously fat spiders. I'm frozen with fear and decide to follow too late. They take the spiders by surprise and manage to make it through a tiny hole in the web. The fat black and bulbous spider crawls over to the hole and seals it up. I am stuck.

Last night I decided to forgo listening to the binaural beats WHILE I slept and instead listened to them and THEN went to sleep. I slept much better. In fact I think I was so tired from my lack of sleep the night before I probably missed most of my REM cycle. When I woke up for my WBTB method I couldn't remember any of my dreams. So I did my WBTB method (woke up for a few minutes, checked email, and then turned on binaural beats and laid back down) and listened to the beats for a good twenty minutes. I then took them off and went to sleep. I woke up a good 4 hours later (quarter to ten, waaay later than I normally get up) and had this jotted down:

My wife and I are on an airplane that apparently goes to space. I'm excited but nervous and am not sure how to react. The plane takes off and then just as quickly Leah and I warp to the airport (what they say about speedy traveling in Dreaming is true, eh?) and we are walking around. We are in a big airport that sort of looks like a giant mall. It's really white and really open. We see a line of people at the suitcase rack and decide to head over. Along the way I ask Leah how long we're on vacation for and she says 'Two days'. I'm instantly upset and go, 'What's the point of a two day vacation. Let's go for five.'. We reach the line of people for suitcases and watch as different people run over to a guy handing them out and open the bags up. Dogs keep jumping out.

I should be upset I didn''t remember much but, honestly, I'm just glad I got a good nights sleep. Two more days of Infinity. Knock on wood and let's hope for some developments.

I really think that binaural beats don't work for me. Whenever I listen to headphones and try to sleep I just cannot do it. Last night I barely got any sleep at all. It was horrible. I only remember the vaguest fragment of a dream:

My brother in law is on a roof and so am I. But the roof I am on is a good 15 feet away from him. I look around. It's sunny out and it looks like we're in the desert somewhere. The setting kinda reminds me of Assassins Creed. I suddenly run forward as fast as I can and leap towards the other roof. I hit the side of the building and my fingers barely clasp the edge of the roof. My heart is pounding and I'm able to pull myself over the edge. I lay there for a second before continuing towards my brother in law. I get to him and say something to him. I can't remember what I said. But I know I mention that we're on some sort of mission. So I point across the way and tell him, after exchanging a few words, that we need to head over there to fight off a few people. After that we need to jump back towards another building where we can meet up at our 'base'. So we do. We jump across and again I barely make it. My hands are just barely over the edge of the ledge. I pull myself up. We fight off a few people on this new building before heading back to the building with our "team". For us to get there we can't jump straight to the roof, we have to hit the ground and then scramble up a rope ladder. I go first. I hit the dusty ground and am on and up the ladder before I can take a second breath. My brother in law attempts the same thing but as soon as he hits the ground he moves too slow and is swept away by a group of men in ninja costumes.

I also remember a few little fragments but I'm not going to write those down. I barely got any sleep. It was terrible.

I dreamed that I was in some bigger, darker, version of my parents old house. This man and woman were there. And then it was a store, somehow. And they were shopping. I ask the person I'm working with if the two "had left yet". She says yes and I say: "Thank goodness," and as I say that I notice they are still here so I quickly change it to, "Because I needed to use the restroom." so as not to annoy them or make it seem like I'm badmouthing them. Anyways, I go back to use the bathroom and for some reason there's a woman with the guy that I wanted to leave and she's freaking me out. For some reason she's suffering from this "Alzheimer" like disease that can only be cured by this product called 'squid juice'. What it does is it (the disease) slowly makes you forget everything you love. I somehow gave it to her. Then Justin Long is somehow there and he's hunting me down and I'm trying to hide. He never catches/finds me. But I hear him saying that the 'squid juice' doesn't cure everyone. He pours some of it on his hand/face and worms start to bubble out of it and then he says, "It doesn't always get to what is inside.". And that's all I really remember.

And then for some reason Leah and I are at this really run down looking movie theater. We're on our "honeymoon" (don't ask me how I know this) and we wanted to go see a movie. So we get our tickets and, at first, have a helluva time finding our movie room. Somehow we end up like a mile past our actual room before having to double back. We find it, room 13, and go in. Immediately I'm hit by the smell of must and decay. There is a woman wearing loose sweatpants, she's a big woman, and the first thing she says when we come in is: "Finally ya made it." So we go all the way into the room. The actual silver screen is nice but instead of cozy chairs there is a gigantic white bench/pyramid that is covered in kids. We make our way over there. The kids are yelling and loud. There is a man at the front of the room by the screen trying to calm them down. He can't. So he sends in a "band jockey". A band jockey is a guy that is in the band that entertains the kids between shows. I don't know how I know this. So he comes in and asks the kids to quiet down, they don't. He gets mad and leaves again. When he comes back, again, he's dressed in some bizarre "Bashir" costume. He has a big oily black mustache and a giant wig. The kids listen after laughing a little bit. And then we're somehow back in our "hotel room" and I remember trying my hardest to get out of the clothes I was wearing and to bag them up. The smell from the theater is clinging to them and it's making my dream self gag.

I couldn't sleep well last night. I'm on my fourth day of the Infinity course (I'm at the point where I'm doing MILD and hand theory before going to bed and then waking up a few hours for the WBTB technique). But I kept waking up. I don't think I ever fell into a deep enough sleep to make the WBTB technique work. I tried listening to binaural beats while I was asleep but I think they kept me awake.

Til next time.

So I'm driving up to Sterling to see a movie. With my mom, I guess. And for some reason a few other friends are there: Lawrence, Austin, maybe Chris. We get to the theater and I don't even sit near my mom. It's a war movie, I think. Afterwords as we are filing out of the theater my mom comes jogging over to me and I go to give her a hug to say thanks for coming and goodnight. She asks if I want to go grab some dinner though. I can tell she wants to just to prolong our time together. I tell her that I can't because it's getting late. So she's sort of disappointed but she leaves anyways.

Then for some reason I suggest going to grab dinner to my friends. They don't really want to go but for whatever reason they say "Yeah, OK." Lawrence is reluctant but eventually caves and Austin seems gung ho to do it. So we split up to our respective cars and decide to meet at a restaurant. I get to the restaurant and realize that I'm still waiting for them. I don't know how I know but suddenly I realize that Lawrence got into a car wreck. And that the police officer on the scene took his sweet time taking Lawrence to the hospital, on purpose. And I'm furious that the man would risk my friends life just to be an asshole.

For some reason I'm pulling into a Wal Mart parking lot. I'm about to hop outta my car and run inside, to buy an ethernet cable of course, when I realize that I forgot the power cable to my laptop at work. I'm instantly annoyed (I'm super paranoid about doing this, in real life) and measure what I should do. Should I run back to work real quick? Leave it there until tomorrow? So I decide to run into Wal Mart real quick and THEN head back and get the power cable. I'm miffed but I go inside anyways and start making my way towards the cables. I hear over the intercom: "Is it OK to still sell it? Do I really have to buy it?" And I pass this guy in the pencil/paper aisle who was actually doodling on all of the sketch paper. And some Wal Mart employee was telling him he can't do that and he has to buy it. As the two guys are talkign I quietly pull out an eraser and start erasing all of his doodles. I remember thinking that I'm helping them but I realize I'm not erasing the doodles 100% so it probably doesn't matter.

And then I'm at the cable aisle. There's a heavier fellow there, obviously an employee--he is dressed in a blue button up and jeans and has a name tag on and is also balding, and a woman. The woman is looking for some sort of cable that has spider mite protection inside of it. For whatever reason the employee asks me if a certain product will work for her and I say, "Yeah, it sure looks like it." As if the item even exists. And then I ask the employee if he has ethernet cables and he rolls his eyes as if that's a stupid question and says, "Yeah."

I woke up this morning and walked around for a few minutes and could not remember a single dream or even a fragment and then suddenly the above all came flooding back into me.

If I haven't had a lucid dream since starting this course I am glad I am at least remembering dreams more consistently. Today I had three more vivid dreams. I'll go in reverse order. This is the second dream I remembered:

See this basketball? IN THE FACE!!

A friend and I were hanging out in front of a condo in what appeared to be somewhere like California. It was really hot and breezy and I think a beach was nearby. We had a deflated basketball in our hands and we were just hanging out. For whatever reason I see the "In THE FACE" actor from Step Brothers walking down the sidewalk next to us. For whatever reason the buddy I'm with motions to me to come on and starts following that guy, with our basketball. My friend says: We are invited to come play basketball with them. I'm pretty nervous because I didn't hear an invitation (shoulda RC'd!! :X) but I follow along anyway. Along the way I start to think that we'll definitely need to put air in our ball or, at least, go back to my car to grab my good basketball. But my friend says don't worry and we see a pump alongside the road. We jog over and grab it and start pumping up the ball. I remember doing this but I don't remember the ball actually inflating any (shoulda RC'd again!!!).

We round a corner, where the fellow did, and see a basketball hoop mounted above an open garage. It looks pretty beat up but I don't care. A hoop is a hoop. What I DO care about is the fact that there is a pretty nice sized slope going from the base of the driveway up to the garage door. I think to myself: Man, this is going to be hard to play on. Whatever, though. So I walk up the slope and stand directly under the hoop to get a feel for it. It's not going to be fun or easy. And then the actor we had followed is standing in front of me. To my left is, what I'm assuming, is his son. And there is another guy there as well. The actor asks me when we're gonna start and I say: "Right now." And we do. The actor passes the ball over to the other guy and the other guy drives to the hoop to try and dunk. Somehow I get involved and make him miss and it goes into the grass next to the garage. I'm told to inbound the ball. And I do, to the actors son. From there I remember dribble driving to the hoop, getting caught up in the slope, and forcing up a few bad shots. And that is really it.

Filming a movie. At the mall. With my old math teacher? Wat?

So this dream is a bit more blurry but I'm surprised I remember it at all. It was one from the middle of the night I, for whatever reason, chose not to write down. But as I was writing my basketball dream it.. It just came back to me.

In this dream we start out in the mall. But the inside of the mall isn't like normal. It's laid out like my old job at a publishing company. People are clicking away at keys and for whatever reason, I am too. I sit down at a computer to start working and click to open our "lead tickets" program (which is just a task we had to do, by entering information). Immediately my old math teacher comes around and tells me not to do them and glances at Shane (who worked with me at this place). So I stop.

And now suddenly I'm walking through the mall with a HUGE group of people I know. Family, friends, random parents. I'm wearing a blue button up shirt and khaki shorts. I have a camera. I'm walking around thinking that I have to get this film organized to start filming and that I don't need this many distractions. There's no reason to have this many people here. In my dream I wonder: Do they think the movie is COMING OUT today? Because I need to start it today. For whatever reason I decide that I want to be in the film but I can't be in the film wearing khaki shorts. I need some jeans to make myself look good. So, instead of buying a pair from the mall I'm in, I decide to drive an entire HOUR back to my parents house in Mount Morris. I'm apparently in Rockford (where I currently live). This doesn't make sense. But I do. I feel myself getting into my car and driving and suddenly I'm halfway to Mount Morris. I'm leaning my face on my hand listening to the radio or something when I get a phone call from my mom asking me to come check something out. Apparently she is at the mall and forgot I told her I had to leave for awhile. I tell her I can't because I left already but I'll be back. She semi-freaks out and then tells me they're leaving as well.

Delivering Pizzas on a busy road to write the declaration of independence.

So the dream opens up and I'm frantically driving on this old road I used to take to work, Mud Creek, and in front of my are literally hundreds of cars and trucks. They all have Pizza Hut and Dominoes displays on them. Except the displays are gigantic! The pizza hut display goes up the side of their truck/car and past the roof. And the Domino display is sideways on the roof. So these two signs make gigantic Ls. But anyway. I'm behind a whole slew of these cars just trying to make it past them when they start constantly honking at me. Whatever though. I keep going, occasionally almost skidding out in the dusty/dirt road, and manage to survive the ordeal. Because next thing I know I'm at some sort of campground. With my brother in law (yay ). And we're re-writing the Declaration of Independence as if for a new nation. Joel is writing but he's stuck. I tell him: Start with "we the people" and end there, as well. Whatever goes in between will be fine.

So I started following the "Infinity" Lucid Dreaming Course last night. Here are the two dreams I had:

We are outside of our house, my wife and I, at night.
Leah says her mom wants me to hang out more.
I get mad and say I can't and don't have the time.
She says I can visit on Sunday.
I tell her it's my only day off and I already waste half of it as it is.
I realize I'm runnin late to work and stomp off at 9:50.
I walk up a sidewalk and it seems like it's night time.
I see three dogs that look like my parents dogs and they bark at me. Leah laughs

This next dream is a bit more intense, detail wise. This singer from a local band, Kirkland is their name, is working at the gas station next door to my real life work. I remember going over to visit, it was still night like my first dream, and I was incredibly nervous. So she's walking around or whatever. And then for some reason I see her hanging out with this singer from this other local band, Matter of Fact, like in real life. And then I'm driving up from east of the gas station, still dark, and listening to a song that both of those singers did together. It was kind of trippy.

And suddenly a guy I barely know/talk to and I are going into this tiny and abandoned tennis court. It's right by the highway and fenced up as if it were a prison. Creepers and vines are everywhere and leaves cover the court. It was sort of mystical. I say to the other guy, Nate, "Man. It's been forever since we got a good tennis game in." And we start to play tennis. I just remember the court is cramped and we're trying to play, still at night, and Nate mentions something about how he "hates it when people return in that area. It's so cheap.

So nothing crazy awesome tonight. The dreams were interesting. I honestly didn't sleep very well and had to force myself to take down notes for this DJ entry. I'm moving on to day 2 of the Infinity Course. I tried willing myself into SP last night and I could get to the point where I was completely numb but I was too awake to fall asleep.

I can't really remember these two dreams in vast detail, like I hoped, but I can remember a decent amount. I remember two dream fragments:

#1: I was in some sort of foresty valley with a bunch of other people to celebrate my friends wedding. My wife was there and so were my other friends. It was Whitneys wedding we were celebrating. I remember seeing Whitney in pretty vivid detail and Brian as well. Then for whatever reason I'm walking through the middle of nowhere, still at this wedding, to another town to use the bathroom. Gotta love dream logic. And then, for whatever reason, the fighting begins. Inspired by Dragonball I, for no reason whatsoever, have to begin fighting my relatives in Dragonball style. But for some reason my relative is Tien from DBZ. So we start fighting and I remember throwing energy blasts at him and I seem to hold my own pretty well. For whatever reason another person joins the fight and I remember vividly trying to perform my kamehameha attack but nothing comes out of my palms. However, Tien still stumbles backwards as if hit by energy. It was a really cool feeling. I also remember sneaking into a small house, crawling past a small bedroom with a TV and a video game on, to go use the bathroom. But I couldn't find the bathroom and, from one of the darker closets, a cousin of mine grabs me and scares the crap outta me.

#2: And now I'm in some giant kind of superstore stocking shelves. Mike, my buddy from work, is there too. We're both working hard. I remember Jason and David, the owners of the company I work for, being there as well. For whatever reason I have to go out of the store and down to a ditch where there is a big pump moving water. So I get down there and there the pump is. It is blue and rectangular and sitting inside of a box which is in the water. However; the box only has three sides. No fourth side. I remember this sorta making me extremely confused. Because, without the right wall of the box, how is the water staying in there? I shoulda done an RC because I'm pretty sure I would have become lucid if I thought about it. My confusion, even though the dream isn't that vivid to me, was really strong and I remember it VERY clearly. So anyways I fiddle around with the pump by moving it around. I'm afraid of the water getting low and the pump sucking up air and dying (gotta love it when your work invades your dreams). So I move it outta the box and higher up this muddy slope. It begins to pull less water. OK. So I move it back down towards the box and suddenly it's shooting all of that water again. It's at this point, while fiddling with the box and pump, that I see two gold coins just sitting in the mud. I pick them up. My first thought is: I should give these to Leah to show her dad (who is a coin collector). I look at the coins closer and see that they look similar to the 2010 US pennies at one side (with the flag like shield) and on the other side is a pair of large trees that cross at the very top and in the middle is a couple of giraffe standing in some tall grass. I think to myself: "These coins must be currency in Africa!" And then I'm walking back into the "superstore" to show them off.

Whew! For two "fragments" I sure did remember quite a bit. I love it when that happens. I think that, with my new routine, I'm going to be making great progress. Last night I forgot to do my meditation/mantra but I did the rest all day. Today should be more effective, I think, because I was up too late last night.

For the last 20 days, since seeing the film "Inception", I have been cataloging my dreams in my dream journal. And through this I've grown to be able to recall my dreams in pretty decent detail every night except for nights where I don't get much sleep. That, in itself, is pretty awesome. I've also been doing my reality checks throughout the day (whenever I remember, I'll go ahead and perform them). Now I'm ready to take the next step. Here is my plan to become a lucid dreamer:

1. Maintain a Dream Diary.
2. Randomly throughout the day perform reality checks. Truly questioning my surroundings.
3. At least four times a day take a moment to truly study my surroundings. Waking awareness and attention to detail, I think, should carry over to the dreaming world.
4. Write a big letter "A" with a question mark on my palm. Every time I see this, do an authentic reality check.
5. Before bed, meditate. I call it "finding my void". I'll focus, in my mind, on a tiny flame in a vast black emptiness. All I well think of is how it flickers.
6. When I'm done meditating repeat my mantra: "I AM dreaming." until I fall asleep. I'm hoping this will carry into my dream and, when it does, I will become lucid simply by stating (subconsciously) my mantra.

Outside of that I'm really just going to immerse myself in the idea of lucid dreaming (LaBerges book, the forum, movies..) and try to enjoy the journey. The harder the journey the better the arrival, I think.

Bizarre set of dreams last night. I'll leap right into it.

The dream I remember most vividly is about this thing called "the 4chan van". I dreamed that there was this trailer/van set up and if you went into it you were pretty much locked in for the duration of "an event". The "events" you experienced inside of the van were inspired by 4chan memes and such. So I walk into the van with my friend Phil and we go into the main "room". Everything is tinted red and there are a ton of people in there. Music is loud and I realize there's a band on stage. They remind me of the band from "The Ringer". My friend Phil is into the music (he's into all music, pretty much) and we're watching quietly when suddenly people behind us start throwing stuff at Phil and I and making fun of us. I remember feeling embarrassed and angry at the same time. The other guys in the "van" start making fun of Phil, myself, and the music.

The next dream fragment I remember is being out in the middle of nowhere. There is a big flat of plains and trees everywhere. For some reason I go out and start climbing trees until I'm in this sort of ravine. Once into this ravine I see a path of trees, that fell down, that lead for quite awhile. I remember thinking I might fall if I try to cross but then I remember that bigger trees were leaning in just the right angles for me to walk on the downed trees and hold the big ones for support. So I start crossing the trees and then I reach the end of it and I'm on a flat area, that is elevated, that is simply grassy. Suddenly something pops outta nowhere and says something freaky to me. But I can't remember what it is..


Two fragments. At least I'm remembering a little bit now. Side note: Practice Mantra to SP: "I am dreaming."

Two days ago I had my best night of dreaming in my life, 5 dreams (all in depth) recalled in one night.

Last night I couldn't recall much of anything. The only thing I remember was visiting my friends bands myspace and listening to some new song they put on there.

Wish me luck.

So I'm starting to realize a few of my dream signs: basketball players, goofy math, and running in fear.

Last night I guess I was pretty tired. I only had one dream fragment and at that it was only a snippet of a conversation. The vocalist from a friends band, Aaron from S.I.B, said something like: "What all countries have we invaded since Iraq? Only one."

Hopefully better luck tonight..