lucid

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I might have just discovered a great gem of lucid dreaming. I call it: RC-MILD, since you basically just MILD, but replace a mantra with one solid, thorough RC.

So I thought up this new method, then got in bed and just tried to go to sleep normally. But I was watching myself, that I didn't actually fall asleep. I just wanted to be near sleep so that the RC would be the last thing I remembered doing. When I felt close to being asleep, I sat up, did the full RC, and then laid back down and next thing I know, I'm asleep.

In the dream I entered, I was watching some video on youtube. Nothing unusual was going on; there was really nothing to indicate that it was a dream. And yet, all of a sudden I had this impulse to to a reality check, and upon pinching my nose, I tested out to be dreaming! I was a bit surprised at the immediate success of RC-MILD, and couldn't think up something original to do now that I was lucid. So I just decided to practice my shapeshifting more.

I turned around and found myself suddenly outside some mansion, which I ignored and went on to the shape shifting. People passed by me doing that as if nothing were out of the ordinary. Eventually I must have tried to go too far with a stretch or something, because the dream started to fade big time. So I rubbed hands, rubbed hands, rubbed hands...and it came back in full force, the shapeshifts still being part of me!

I tried to walk around after that and just see what I could see, but eventually my lucidity faded, all the shapeshifts just literally fell off of my body, leaving a normal me behind, and the dream continued on, turning into some strange videogame-like experience

Not a bad start for my first time with a new method...I must go start a thread about this now!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Ok, FINALLY got some recall and a lucid dream in!

Dream 1: I started a fantasy novel on google docs, but apparently should have paid more attention to the security settings. Soon, a whole bunch of people were writing in it, and so when I suddenly was inside the story, it caused a whole bunch of chaos. Writers tried to kill off other writers by writing monsters and magicians and all that into the story, and there was a ton of blood...I once threw my sword into the eye of a giant troll and blood squirted everywhere, including all over the writer who had spawned him in the first place. I wrote another sword into the story and took down that writer, too.

A lot of such things happened...I can't remember them all. But at the end, I was the only writer still standing, and I was sucked out of the story back to my desk...and the google docs novel had been completely erased

I woke up for a brief moment after that and went back to sleep.

Dream 2: A false awakening, only in the past. I was probably 14 or 15. I was compelled somehow to get up out of bed and sneak downstairs to get something, but I can't remember what anymore. I knew I couldn't get caught, though, whatever it was.

I made it downstairs easily enough, but then my dad started to head down as well, since he was getting ready to leave for work. I hid beneath a table and hoped he wouldn't see me. But he did...and yet, didn't react at all to my presence. So I got out from hiding and sneaked around the place, got what I needed, and then headed back upstairs just as my dad left. He could have seen me several times, but it was like I was invisible to him. I thought it was weird, but didn't realize I was dreaming.

This time I woke up and realized it. I forced my eyes open for a short while and then attempted a WILD. Got everything still, saw a bit of HI, and then...FLASH! Woosh!

Dream 3: I was in a false awakening again, but in the present day. I couldn't focus at all...I couldn't move...had to pinch my nose. Had to! Forced my arm up with much difficulty, pinched, breathed through...

and then things jumped into better clarity. Only, my vision was still screwy, like being cross-eyed and not able to fix it. After trying just to correct my vision a bit without results, I decided I would teleport. "1...2...3!" I said, building up my energy and then thrusting my head forward through the pillow, shutting my eyes.

When I opened them again, I was just outside my house, floating in mid-air. Suddenly an idea came to mind: "I wonder what's beyond the sky?" I thought. "I should find out!" So I flew straight up, not to go into space, but to the top of the sky, as if it were just a skybox in a video game.

I went through it once and all was just black, so I ducked back down into the sky, waited a moment, and then went back through it again.

This time I came up out of water, and looking around me, I found myself to be at a beach where all the water was the sky, and if you swam down very far, you'd fall down into the world. But I didn't want that, of course, so I climbed onto the sand and walked around a bit. Everything was so real it was crazy...every plant, every grain of sand--it all astounded me.

Pretty soon a girl came up to me...she was like a combination of people from real life that I've seen, but not met. Of course, being lucid, I didn't hesitate to go up and talk to her. We ended up sitting down together on a couple beach chairs, but that was a mistake. The moment I stopped moving and started to only focus on one thing (the girl), I started to lose the dream. My vision began to switch to the false awakening again, even though I could still feel my dream body at that beach with the girl. I pinched my nose and moved my head, which brought things back up for a little while, but it didn't last long.

Not as good as my last WILD, but it'll do. There are a couple private matters I left out that made the dream worthwhile

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

YES!! Finally a decent lucid dream again!

I've had several recent lucids before this, yes, but as of late they have been more like playing a video game than being physically present in the dream. This one was like being physically present again, which is awesome!

First thing I know, I'm flat on the ground in the snow. Only it isn't cold, just pleasantly chilly. After getting up onto my feet, I looked around me, and found I was in the most stunning landscape I have ever seen. Right before me was a cliff that dropped down several hundred feet. Extending beyond that was miles and miles of rocky terrain with various elements at random points throughout. A little bit of green here, a little pool of water there...it really compensated for the rockiness, making the area feel very lush despite its overall gray appearance.

And then there was the volcano. Out in the distance, a huge mountain stood high above the rest of the place, spewing out its lava high into the deep, deep blue sky. Bluer sky than I've ever seen before. And when the lava collided with the atmosphere, it totally transformed, causing a super-nova-like ball of light to hover in the sky, followed by curvy contrails of dusty steam spreading all over, making the sky seem full of stars even though it was still daytime.

As I beheld this magnificent display, there was no question in my mind. "This is a dream." I said. "It has to be." I pinched my nose and breathed in, and sure enough, air passed right through.

I almost wasn't sure if I wanted to leave. This place was so magnificent I gladly would have just studied and memorized it for the duration of the dream, but I figured there were better things to do.

The first thing that came to mind was to try and summon a friend and see if it would result in a shared dream. I tried the "when I turn around, so-and-so will be there" thing, but it didn't work (in fact, I can't seem to get that to work any place but a WILD) so I tried transforming a rock as I'd done before. That almost worked. As I slowly raised my hands, simultaneously willing the rock to grow and turn into a person, the ground shook beneath me and the terrain deformed a bit, but no person came. Maybe the rock wasn't distinct enough, considering everything else around me was rock, too.

Eventually I gave up on that idea and so I took off into the air to fly someplace interesting. Before long, I came to a very industrial-looking city; really cool place. In the very middle of that city was an arena, and this caught my attention. It had a big sign over the entrance that read: "Shared Game."

As I walked inside, I was greeted by a rather tall guy who asked me straight out: "Do you know that you're dreaming?"

"Yep, I do. So is this place what I think it is?"

"We're all lucid dreamers, here. We come to play the Game, but only lucid dreamers are allowed inside. Non-lucid people just get pounded in there."

"How do you play?"

"There aren't really any rules. The object of the game is just to get the ball from the other team and get it to the other side of the field, which scores you a point. How you get it to the other side and how you keep the other team from doing so is up to you."

"Sounds cool, can I just join in right now?"

"Of course! Have fun!"

So I went into the arena, was welcomed by a huge group of people who all claimed to be lucid dreamers, chose a team to side with, and we played. It was the craziest game I've ever played. The ball was constantly being changed hands. Teleportation, flying, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, whatever--all of it was allowed and frequently used. Points weren't scored very often, but eventually the other team did get to 5 (which I learned was the winning score). I believe my team ended up at 3, though, so we didn't do too bad.

After that game, I said goodbye and left the arena with a personal dream goal in mind: to skydive without a parachute or a plane. I just took off right there, looking down at the world below, the buildings, the arena and the dreamers who were still playing the game...it was all so real!

Once I reached a good height, I stopped flying and let myself enter freefall. It was a short trip back down, but a lot of fun! I landed smack on the ground, right on my face, but quickly got back up.

Problem was, for that moment that I was laying down, the dream started to fade, like I had put myself in the position that I was sleeping in IRL. So I did another nose RC to clear things up a bit longer, but I was losing control fast by now. Before long, I was completely non-lucid, and the dream transformed into a confusing plot about a guy trying to take over the world using cows.

All in all, for being a ton shorter than it had to be, that was really a great LD. Next time I won't skydive I guess...unless I can land on my feet. The realism was really great, though. All the scenery was very dramatic and the lighting was odd, but it gave a cool effect. And I would really love to learn if those were actually other lucid dreamers playing that game.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, last night I went to bed trying out a new MP3 to see if it would help me wake up at the right time to WILD.

The MP3 definitely worked; I didn't wear headphones all night, but I turned the volume all the way up and then wrapped the earbud cords around my bed post and then slid the buds down into all the cord loops so they stayed in place pointing right at my head.

It woke me up two times in the night, but only on the first time did I get anything good out of it. My memory served me well enough; I noticed as soon as I woke up, but didn't rush to a billion thoughts that would wake me up. I simply rolled over, got into a comfortable position, and then went completely still. It wasn't long before I saw HI and felt SP...and yet, I must have lost consciousness at some point, because the next thing I remember is everything being totally black and me being totally unaware of my body. I don't recall ever seeing flashing lights or feeling the ground shake, which happen every time I WILD, or even just get close to succeeding at one.

But at least I regained consciousness at this point, body asleep, mind awake, and in a dreamless state. So I decided to try and make one of my own.

"A character is appearing in front of me."

Sure enough, a moment later, I saw a DC turn her head out of the darkness (yes, it was a girl). Suddenly I felt as if I were sinking, drawing closer to her. The girl's eyes shot open and stared at me as if from afar. I continued to sink inward, and as I did so, more than the girl's head faded into view.

She reached her hand out to me, almost robotically, as the sinking began to slow down. I felt as if I would lose the dream; like I was momentarily to rocket back upward and wake up. But I reached out and managed to just barely grab hold of her hand, and she pulled, breaking the opposing force suspending me in the air and causing me to freefall down into the dream.

After falling what felt like ten or fifteen feet, I collided with something, and instantly the dream was in full view. I had hit a bed, and now I bounced off and landed on the floor. The girl had been on the other side of the bed than the one that I fell on, and the impact had effectively knocked her out as well.

She was startled, like she hadn't seen me before. Maybe she thought what had just happened was a dream for her or something.

"Who...who are you?" She asked, holding up a blanket to cover herself.

"I'm..." I paused to quickly think up a title that wouldn't give everything away to her as a dream. I didn't know her well enough yet to know if she'd respond well to that or not.

"...a friend."

Her entire countenance changed immediately, then. I wish now that I had just told her the truth, though, because as soon as I ignored my connection to real life, I lost it completely.

"Oh! And you haven't even been given a place to sleep!"

"That won't be necessary. I'm...really not tired, to be honest."

"Well you must at least need something to eat or drink! Come, this way!"

The girl then hurried down the hallway, pulling the blanket around herself as she went. Not knowing what else to do, I followed. Her house was very futuristic; technology not (yet) existent was everywhere. Eventually we made it to a small kitchen with a round table to one side.

"Please, sit." She said, handing me a glass of something to drink.

It suddenly struck me how sweet this girl was...no doubt about it, I was falling in love.

"So," the girl began. "Would you mind telling me a bit about yourself?"

"Sure, but...I still don't even know your name." (funny that I would say this, since she still didn't know my name)

"Oh! I'm so sorry. My name is Avina."

After that I told her about my past, which was now a bunch of false memories telling me I had been a soldier in the Alliance Military that was sent to guard the city and I had fallen through Avina's roof by mistake.

"I feel so terrible!" Avina exclaimed when I had finished my story.

"What? Why?"

"I've kept you up this whole time! Didn't even give you the option of waiting until morning!"

"It...kind of is morning, Avina." I replied after seeing a nearby clock read 3:00am

"Right. There's another bed in my room; you may use that if you want to. Feel free to wake me up if you need anything else!"

And next thing I know, I'm in a bed beneath a large window in Avina's room, and I can't fall asleep or take my eyes off of her. Eventually I couldn't resist any longer. Slowly, quietly, I walked over to her bed and just watched her sleep a moment.

Before I knew it, my hand had found its way down, and I was stroking her hair, caressing the side of her face, and then leaning down for a kiss. Of course that woke Avina right up, but she didn't fight or anything. Rather she reached her arms around me and stood up. We continued kissing for quite a while, but then Avina leaned back and said:

"I will be yours. Always."

After that things kind of blur together. My duties with the Alliance Military frequently pulled us apart, but we always made every effort to be together. Travel distance or cost didn't matter.

One point that stands out in my mind is when a huge crowd was before the Citadel Council discussing Alliance plans for the future. As it is typically with politics, everything was going down the tubes as far as I was concerned. What needed to be done seemed so simple to me, and yet everyone was bickering over complex things and not getting anything accomplished.

As I sat there, listening to all this, I noticed Avina come in the side door and take a seat next to me. She could see the frustration on my face.

"You should speak. Many people here respect you." She whispered.

"But that doesn't mean anyone will stand with me! What I say is useless without backup."

"I'll stand with you." Avina said.

That was all I needed. I stood up, interrupting an official far more important than I, and stated my opinion on the matter. The council, as expected, told me I was out of my mind and to sit back down. I continued, however, and asked for anyone who agreed with my plan to stand with me. At first, no one did. But then Avina stood, which soon encouraged another to stand, and another, and another, until the intimidation of the council was broken and the entire room of men and women was standing in my favor, opposed to the council. They had no choice but to accept my plan for the Alliance Military, then.

Gets blurry again...next thing I remember, Avina and I were arriving at her house after being married. It was late, but there was no chance we could sleep.

"Tell me this isn't a dream!" Avina said. "I cannot believe all this...it is just too wonderful!"

"This isn't a dream!" I said. "It's just us--forever!"

Then we lay down in the same bed this time and...well, you can probably figure out what.

We didn't get a wink of sleep that night, but neither of us cared. I don't think we ever even let go of each other before dawn.


Well...make of that what you will. It was an incredible experience for me, anyway. Doubt anyone else will really appreciate it the same way.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Sorry there was no entry yesterday. I've been overtaken by really bad allergies, and I couldn't sleep that night...so obviously, I had no real dreams, just vague images here and there.

Last night I fared a bit better; sleep didn't come easily, but it did come, and brought dreams with it. Still, my discomfort messed up recall a bit, so only the lucid part really stands out in my memory.

I was in what was like a mix of real life and Mass Effect. That is, there were people and locations from real life, but I was actually Commander Shepherd and I remember even mentioning to a few people that I was a Spectre as well. When I would talk to people, frequently (though not always) I would choose my sentences from a circle of options, just like in the game. I also remember adjusting my equipment selection from a 'screen' that perfectly mimicked the original Mass Effect screen.

And I had a Palm Pre, which totally made my day

Although I don't recall there being any fights, at one point a DC who looked a lot like a certain friend of mine came up and said:

"That was a pretty slick move you made back there."

For some reason that seemed to ring a bell in my head, and I could just feel in the air that I could pull off any moves I attempted. That much figured out, it was only a moment later before I figured out why...

"Oh right! This is a dream!" I whispered quietly to myself. Then I cleared my throat and spoke up. "Dude, I am the ONE! I can do anything!"

"Really?" The DC asked. "Show me."

"Ok. Watch."

I then ran a few steps and did a flip that landed me perfectly on my feet.

"And I can't even do flips! Not in real life, anyway."

Someone clapped, even though I never saw who. Figured it was worth going on if they'd enjoy a show, though. Since I couldn't really injure myself, it seemed a good time to try something that would kill me IRL.

I ran another few steps and did a flip and a half, this time landing directly on my head. Then I just stood like that, maintaining balance without my hands, even, and even though I was surprised to find that it did hurt, I wasn't actually wounded, so it didn't bother me.

After that, I did everything I could think of to show off; butterfly twists, wall runs, handsprings...a lot of stuff requested by the onlooking DC's.

Maybe I just went too crazy and flung my head around so much that the dream faded, I don't know. But for whatever reason, just like I went lucid in order to start pulling off moves, I stopped pulling off moves and lost lucidity.

The dream only went on a little while after that anyway, so I didn't miss out on much.

Seems weird that I just don't RC in my dreams anymore. I do RCs faithfully every day for weeks, and then in the dreams that end up being lucid, I just...go lucid. It's very unfortunate, actually. I have the presence of mind to understand that I can do things that I can't do IRL, but my mind is still absent enough to not be very creative; I usually just keep doing whatever I was doing in the non-lucid part of the dream, just in a more extraordinary way. And it doesn't really feel like lucidity should...more like the feeling of playing a video game that I have total control over than feeling physically present in the dream.

I'll have to work on that...maybe I should start RCing assuming that I've already gone lucid, so that when I naturally go lucid in dreams, my first action will be to RC and thus improve my state of mind.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

In recent weeks, my ability to LD has seemed to wane as lucid dreams grew fewer and farther between, not to mention that the quality of each one has been on a downward scale as well.

Last night, I may have discovered both the 'why' and the 'how' concerning fixing the issue!

Since I've been RCing consistently for nearly two weeks now with no RC-induced lucid dreams behind me, I decided to try MILD. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of beginning the mantra while lying on my back. I can't sleep on my back, and for some reason, whatever position I begin a MILD in is what I'll revert to once I fall asleep. So I kept rolling over onto my back and waking up, preventing any very deep lucids, but like I said, I did learn a bit!

I had made a video mocking the president and I was sneaking around with a few buddies to literally deliver it right to his office on a DVD. It was tough avoiding security guards, but all the cameras were taken out via computer hacks. We made it to the office, the president was gone, and I set the DVD on the desk.

*BEEP* *BEEP*

Alarms went off and an army of guards rushed to the scene with the president shortly behind them (only he looked nothing like Obama; more like Einstein with tanned skin). We put our hands up, but suddenly my mind started racing. "I'm not lucid! What can I do? Wait a second, if this already is a dream, I can just go lucid!"

I put my hands down, and nobody fired at me. I just stood there a moment, smiling at the guards, enjoying their utter powerlessness. My buddies thought I was crazy.

"Go ahead, fire." I said.

One of them did, and the bullet just went right through me, not leaving a mark. Everyone's eyes were bugging out in shock.

"Don't you get it? This is a dream!"

Suddenly the president went crazy.

"It's a dream! It's a dream!" He shouted and sang, dancing around the room, even on the walls, until he ended up right in front of me and started to shake my hand vigorously.

I started losing the dream at this point, but I heard the president saying that he respected me for successfully reaching his desk unnoticed and that I would be highly rewarded.

Woke up as he was saying that, but quickly rolled off my back and DEILDed.

I was now in a parade that the president had to celebrate. He was riding on the front of the float I was on, still shouting and singing "It's a dream! This is a dream!" People were everywhere around me.

I stood up and waved, which got a lot of applause, and then I shouted:

"Look at me everybody I'M LUCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID!"

The crowds roared with cheers and applause as I held out that last word. And then, just because I could, I jumped off the float, did a flip, and landed on the ground. The parade cleared away to give me space, and then I performed various tricks that are absolutely impossible IRL.

Woke up again, due to rolling onto my back. This time was for a little bit longer, so I couldn't DEILD. But still, I wasn't done LDing for the night now! When I fell back asleep...

...I found myself in Walmart in 1995. Only I had memories from 2010 still. It was like I had time traveled; the building, the ads, the decorations...all of it looked exactly like it had IRL in 1995. "Hah! This is all old stuff!" I said to myself as I walked through the place. "I wonder if I'm dreaming...but how can I find that out without drawing a lot of attention, in case this is real?"

I settled on getting something off the top shelf without any assistance. I figured the shelf was too high for me to normally be able to jump up and reach, so I'd definitely be dreaming if I could pull the object down. So I got ready, jumped, and made it far higher than the shelf, and in fact, landed on my feet right on top!

"This is definitely a dream! How cool!"

"What are you doing up there!?" A woman called. "You're going to kill yourself!"

"No I'm not, I'm dreaming!" I replied, jumping off and landing with a roll to the ground, completely unhurt. "See?"

Apparently I offended her, cuz she stormed off.

I ignored it.

"Now to update this place!"

I didn't even reach out my hands; I just thought about everything in the store changing to its present-day state, and as I watched, signs everywhere began to flip around with new ads and decorations, shelves and aisles rearranged themselves, and products morphed into their current versions.

Satisfied, I turned around and found myself staring at my ceiling. Once again, on my back, waking myself up...

Writing those dreams makes me feel a lot more in control than I felt actually going through them. I really was aware that I was dreaming, but because I kept waking up, I still felt disconnected from my dream body, and thus the dreams felt 'shallow'...if that's the right descriptor.

But anyway, it seems I was having trouble lucid dreaming because my brain somehow wasn't making the connection between non-lucid dreams and lucid dreams. It was apparently expecting to be lucid from the beginning or not at all, since I practically had to force it to accept the fact that I was in a dream at first, and go from non-lucid to being lucid. But after that, I was conscious of being in a dream far easier, so maybe I just needed to shatter that mental concept and now I'll be back to lucid dreaming every night!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

FINALLY had another lucid last night, short though it was. And actually, it still didn't come from my reality checks, which is really surprising to me. It used to be that if I RC'd for a week, I'd have a lot of LD's, but this time, I've only even come close a couple times!

This time I actually WILDed after WBTB, but unfortunately it didn't end up being as amazing as my last WBTB WILD.

Dream 1: There was a time during the WILD when sleep suddenly overtook me, and I momentarily lost consciousness. But then I suddenly snapped back into mental awareness, like my mind said: "Wait! This is what you were supposed to be looking for!"

Next thing I know, I'm outside in my backyard, lying down in the same position that I had been in my bed...only now I was on top of a fence. Yes, just a fence. I wasn't even laying across it; my body and the fence were going in perpendicular directions, and I wasn't falling down. There was no doubt that I was dreaming with something obvious like that staring me in the face! "I made it!" I thought. So I stood up, but my logical mind got the better of me and I couldn't balance on the fence.

For several seconds I wobbled back and forth, trying to stabilize or lean so that I could jump off and land nicely. But then I had a better idea. "Fly!" I shouted to no one in particular as I lifted off into the air.

The wind was strong beneath me; I could feel it rushing up onto my hands, my face, rippling through my clothes, and even in my hair. "So real!" I whispered.

By this point I had well stabilized my flight, so I was ready to go around and see what I could see. But sadly, excitement at finally being in a lucid dream grew too strong and in an instant, I woke up.

I tried just to DEILD at this point, and it almost worked.

Dream 2: I found myself talking to a friend about lucid dreaming. Now this friend knows very little about it IRL, so I was surprised to hear him so knowledgeable about things.

"I even discovered a way to instantly WILD every single time I try." He told me.

"Really? Could you show me? That would be so awesome to LD like that!"

"Yeah, sure, it's really easy."

So he got down on his knees, leaned his head down to the ground, left his butt sticking up in the air, and then pulled a blanket over himself.

"And then," I heard his muffled voice say, "you just close your eyes and WILD."

In another instant, he was totally still, and didn't respond if I tried to talk to him. After about five minutes, though, he suddenly started shouting and thrashing about!

"Wake up! Gah! Wake up! Wake up!"

Of course he did wake himself up that way. Apparently the dream had turned into a nightmare

"Did it work?" I asked once he had calmed down.

"Yeah, of course it did."

I decided to ignore how stupid a position it was to be in; if it got WILDs that well, it was worth it. So I took the blanket and gave it a shot.

Next thing I know after closing my eyes, I'm in a huge underground auditorium with thousands of people all around. The room was a cave, really, and the stage a huge diamond that was carved into. "No way! It worked! I'm in a lucid dream!"

But then my friend decided to shake me back awake...in the non-lucid dream.

"Well, did it work?"

"You bloody well bet it did! Why'd you wake me up!? Couldn't you have waited until I finished the dream?"

Then I woke up for real. (and by the way, I'm not counting that second lucid part as another LD in my sig just cuz it was so short)

Dream 3: There was another dream I remember too, but it came earlier on in the night. I just wanted to get the more interesting dreams written first . Basically, the doctor told me that because my vision isn't 20/20, I should get my eyes replaced with a new camera device that looked like a real eye and could be fit in an empty eye socket. I didn't want to go through with it.

"My eyes aren't that bad, and what if the surgery fails? Then I'll have no vision at all!" I protested.

"But if it succeeds, you'll have 20/20 for life!"

"Through machines, though, and machines are known to mess up once in a while. I don't want to have to go through eye maintenance all the time when my eyes were nearly fine to begin with."

"But you could have 20/20!" The doctor repeated.

Eventually I just left, but then I kept running into family and friends and they all told me the same things as the doctor and really wanted me to get the artificial eyes. One of them even mentioned they had artificial lungs and the surgery went without a hitch...all just to get me to replace my eyes that are not that bad. It drove me crazy! When I still refused to everyone who told me to get my eyes replaced, they decided to kidnap me and force me to comply with the doctor.

Thankfully, I woke up from that one before they could. I don't exactly want to have my eyes removed, even in a dream. I know exactly what made me dream this, though: Immortel ad vitam. It's a movie I recently watched that has most people with artificial parts and one guy mentions his lungs being replaced...don't recommend that movie at all. It was such a waste of time. Pointless and confusing.

Dream 4: This also happened earlier in the night. Don't remember much about this one. There was a woman who was crazed...trying to take over the world or something. We heard tell of her moving through the country, taking cities over wherever she went. Eventually, she was in my neighborhood, and then, in my house. I grabbed the first weapon I could get to: my sword. (yes, I have a sword IRL, and that's the one I grabbed, only the hilt was longer in the dream than it really is)

I fearlessly walked up to the woman with the sword in my hand and shouted: "Get! Back!" The gem on the sword's pommel began to glow, and as terror overtook the woman's gaze, she crumpled to the ground onto her knees.

"You...have...my sword!"

"What are you talking about, this is my sword! And I will use it unless you give this up!"

"No, that once was my sword, many hundreds of years ago...it is where I get my power from, but I lost it once, and so I now am searching the earth for it."

I thought then that she would grab it out of my hand and turn into some monster of unstoppable power, but she didn't.

"That sword lies in the hands of a brave man, now. I can never reclaim it."

That said, she stood up slowly, walked out silently, her vast armies scattering, and no one ever heard from her again.

That one could almost be in a movie or book or something...interesting concept.

Well, not a bad night for dreaming! Four recalls, a little bit of lucidity...still room for improvement, though!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, I'm getting pretty tired of not having decent lucids, so I'm going back to the constantly-RC method. I'll keep trying WILDs here and there cuz they're so much better when they work, but I'm not getting them to work consistently enough for me.

Since an important part of DILD is dream recall, I thought I had better write down what I remember of last night.

I wasn't actually in the dream; it was like a mental movie. There was a guy (I think his name was Martin) who was staying in a room at his girlfriend's house because he had no job and no money. The gf was some sort of psychiatrist or something like that, and was trying to get Martin a job with her, but he needed specific training before he could. So he got the details, packed what little he had, and headed off to different locations for the training.

It wasn't but a day after he left that his gf got a phone call from her boss. "You may want to tell Martin to look elsewhere." She said. "We've found someone for the job." Martin's gf was shocked. "And this person has all the necessary training for the position?" She asked. "Well...no." Boss replied. "Actually, she has no training at all. But she's got what it takes; you just have to see her with a patient! I think she'll end up teaching us, not the other way around." Now the gf was really distressed. Not only had the spot for Martin been filled contrary to previous plans, and he was getting training he couldn't afford without getting the job as well, but it was all happening for someone with no training! After a brief silence, the boss added, "You should probably meet her. Could I send her over to your place tomorrow? I think it would be a nicer place for a chat than at the office." "Uh, yeah...sure."

Next thing I know, the scene 'cut' to a different person. It was yet another girl (pretty sweet way to dream, right?) who lurked in the shadows (ok maybe not) and was watching Martin's girlfriend's boss at her desk. At first there were other people there, talking to her, but as soon as they all left, the lurker woman walked out and started speaking in commands. "You will not hire the new girl. You will tell her there has been a mistake and she cannot work here." As she spoke, the boss's eyes seemed to roll back in her head and black streaks appeared in both of them, swirling around. I could tell the boss was being controlled. But fortunately, the newcomer appeared just then. She was a pretty brunette that wore glasses; nothing at all like the other, rather dumpy people in the dream. "Let her go!" The newcomer shouted. Her words seemed to throw the evil woman back with a force, and she ran off first chance she got. The boss's eyes returned to normal. "What was that?" The boss asked. "I was totally unable to control myself!" "I don't know," the newcomer replied, "but I don't think we've seen the end of this one."

Again the scene 'cut' to a different location; this time a public phone in a train station. Martin was calling his gf. I can't remember all their dialogue, but she told him about the job no longer being available, and meeting with the newcomer the next day. She said that the whole thing sounded weird, and if possible, she would try to convince the boss not to hire the new girl because of her lack of experience. But still, it wasn't much comfort to Martin. He knew that without a job, he was financially screwed.

It was the following day, then, and the newcomer was knocking at the door of Martin's gf. She was suddenly in an apartment now instead of a house. "Come in." The reply to the knock came. But it wasn't Martin's gf's voice. The newcomer opened the door, and found Martin's gf standing there, motionless, black swirls in her eyes. Next to her was the evil woman. "Now you listen to me." The evil woman said. Martin's gf robotically spoke the same words at the same time; it was like their brains had been connected, and the evil woman's was the dominant of the two. "Do what I say, or she <Martin's gf> dies." The newcomer was strangely able to resist the mind-controlling power of the evil woman. "You don't have to live this way." She told the evil woman. "I can help you." The evil woman laughed, which also made Martin's motionless girlfriend laugh in an emotionless and robotic tone. The two laughs combined were chilling. "Help me? I'm doing this for you." The newcomer raised a single eyebrow in confusion at the evil woman's saying. "I'm doing this for her!" She continued, pointing at Martin's gf. But then something really weird happened. The evil woman looked not just in my direction as the spectator, but at me, even though I wasn't there. I could feel my real body for a moment, but then it got sucked in, and I was standing in that apartment room, also motionless and unable to move of my own accord. "I'm doing it...for him!" I then felt my eyes rolling back into my head, unstoppably, and black swirls began to cover my vision. But then I heard the newcomer start panicking. "No! Don't!" She cried. "He controls the dream; if you control him, you'll kill us all! We can't exist without him being the one in control!" The evil woman snapped back (the gf still saying all of her words at the same time: "Idiot! We'll stop existing as soon as he wakes up!" Then I felt myself uncontrollably begin to say the same things as the evil woman as well. "If I take control of him, we can continue existing forever! None of us have to die! I'm saving us all!" But at the same time as the evil woman was talking, I was thinking about what the newcomer had said about it being a dream. Pretty soon, I realized...it was a dream! Summoning all my energy into one panicked move, I thrust my head forward, said, "Not today!" (which the gf said at the same time as me, this time) and with one jerk of my head (the only thing I could move), I broke the dream like a pane of glass, and woke myself up.

Such a weird, weird concept...a DC being afraid of dying, and thereby attempting to take control of my mind so I wouldn't wake up?? I don't think I want to dwell on that one...

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Had an interesting experience last night. I may have discovered a sleeping position that significantly increases my chance of lucid dreaming.

As some of you know, I've been attempting for some time now to WILD right from going to bed rather than employing WBTB. Last night I finally did it, and this is how: by laying down completely flat on my face. I propped up my forehead and chest with two pillows so that I wouldn't suffocate, and then put my arms to my sides and began the WILD attempt. Surprisingly, I didn't hear or see much during the entry. For a brief second I felt a tingly feeling, but I completed my attention-switching at that moment so my bodily sensations were no longer being registered. Then the darkness of my eyelids seemed to expand far beyond my field of vision. The blackness took on a depth despite the fact that it was all dark and there was not really anything to give it depth.

And then I saw a tower. It was a purple-y color, as all of my beginning hypnagogic hallucinations are. I was looking down at it from above, and slowly drawing nearer to it. Whether I was moving towards it or it was moving towards me I do not know, but my mind got the cue, and I thought, "Oh! It's time to enter the dream now!" I then was rushed downward, past the building, into further blackness.

Next thing I know, I'm standing up in my room next to my bed. "That's weird, I don't remember standing up." I thought. "Better do an RC just in case." I pinched my nose several times, putting it in between several different sets of knuckles so that I knew I couldn't possibly duplicate the action in real life (if I were dreaming) and thereby ruin the RC. Every time, I was able to breath just fine. "Woah, that's cool! It's a dream!"

Even though I was fully lucid by this point, my mind was strangely unclear; it was like after so many failures at WILDing directly after going to bed, it was surprised to have succeeded and didn't exactly know how to handle it.

I could think of none of my goals. As I thought, I idly moved my hand past my shoulder...and it warped. I remembered my first attempt at shape-shifting in a lucid dream, and how far I'd come with dream control since then. I thought I'd go for it again and see how it went. There was absolutely no problem this time; I never lost the dream from shape-shifting, nor did it seem to fade or cause me to lose lucidity. So I turned myself into various people: video game characters, movie heroes...and I even switched genders a couple times (which was a very weird feeling indeed ). I didn't do it all at once, either. I treated my dream body like a 3D model that I could reshape and recolor at will, which seemed much more enjoyable than just declaring myself to be a different person and finding it to happen exactly as I say.

My success, however, would prove to be the loss of my dream. I got excited thereafter, so I threw open the nearest door and ran through whatever fantasy world was on the other side. My dad was there, and talking to me about stuff I can't remember anymore. I replied back, but with the intention of actually speaking out loud. This is another place where my mind was unclear. In the dream, I thought my dad was actually there next to my bed in real life, talking to me, and I was hearing it in the dream, and responding to him with my real voice even though I was completely asleep. It's an interesting concept and probably possible in the right circumstance, but this was not the right circumstance. I never figured out that it was completely impossible for my dad to be there since the door was locked and he couldn't have gotten in if he wanted to.

After I was done talking to my dad, I realized my excitement had caused the dream to slip a bit, so I rubbed my hands before going on. But the damage had already been done; I was losing lucidity. I tried to summon people and objects and it didn't work. Further attempts began to weaken the dream's clarity. Before long, I was not lucid any more. All I recall of the dream after losing lucidity is discovering that I had a huge range of notes that I could hit with my singing voice.

Kind of a weird lucid dream for me. How I got into it was unusual, my mental state during it was unusual, and what I did was unusual. Oh well. At least I had another WILD! It wasn't nearly as good having it right off the bat, but it was still better than 90% of my DILDs in terms of feeling real. I'd sure rather WILD like this every night than spend all day RCing just to get a couple half-decent LDs a week.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, my version of spring break this year was to take a short vacation, during which I managed to keep myself from getting on the internet and just relax and totally stay away from normal life for a while. And now it's over, and now I'm back!

During my time away from home, I managed to have a couple lucid dreams. They were not very clear or long, but my level of dream control was excellent in both, so it was still an enjoyable ride.

Dream 1: I found myself in a large mansion back in the middle ages, chasing after a villain for reasons unknown to me. I'm not sure why, but all of a sudden it was like something clicked in my mind and I realized I was dreaming! The chase fled my mind and I turned to flying around and using telekinesis and whatever else I could find to do in such an old, interesting place. Eventually, though, the villain found his way to me, so we had a sword fight that I easily won thanks to all the flying and the powers. I never killed the guy, but his sword was out of his hand and mine was at his throat as I woke up.

Dream 2: From the beginning, I knew that I was dreaming, and yet that realization wasn't strong enough from the beginning to allow me to form the dream. What I got was a futuristic world where racing through high-speed, high-danger tracks was the sport to end all sports. I was a racer, and I had a girlfriend who also raced. We were in a worldwide championship; everyone had their eyes on us, and if we did well for them, we'd have it made for life. Once I sat in the seat of one of those cars (which looked a great deal like this) I began paying attention to the controls and really went lucid. Of course, due to the lucidity, I did very well and won the race by a long shot. It was interesting being so famous for a race, so I didn't think of changing the dream.

The next several races saw me win more and more, and my girlfriend do well at first, and then lose once completely. I comforted her as I would a real person, but it didn't work. She was so upset that she stormed off and seemed to disappear outside the room. I had no time to think about it, since someone came into the room immediately afterward to escort me to the next race.

We rode on a hovering tram through the air, coming towards an entire city that was one big race track. it was a circular city with track wound all around in it like a bowl of spaghetti, piling up far above the walls around the base. A spire stuck up even higher than the tracks with a glass circular room at the top for spectators. The end result was a city that was basically shaped like a cone. Everything but the road itself was made of a shiny steel, which glistened brightly in the sunrise as I approached my biggest race yet.

After looking out the window, I turned and opened up a suitcase. A new uniform was in it, designed to match the colors of my redesigned car. "Woah, this looks expensive. I wish I could wear this thing around in real life!" I said. "What did you say?" My dream girlfriend asked as she walked in. "Oh, nothing. Just thinking out loud. How are you doing? I haven't seen you for a while." I replied. "About that..." the dream gf began hesitantly. "You were right about what you said back there. I was just mad about losing the race, but I should have realized that you were right all along. I'm sorry." We made out--I mean, made up, and then I went out to race...only to end up waking up.

So yes indeed, I'm still lucid dreaming, and I fully intend to resume reality checking and attempting WILDs so I can have clearer and better lucid dreams once again very soon!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

IIIIIIIIIIII'M BACK!

Finally managed to lose that nasty cold, so I'm back into lucid dreaming now! And what a good start it was, too! After no RCing, no real attempting to go lucid, no studying lucid dreams for a couple weeks, I managed to go lucid on my first night of returning!

The world was covered in snow and war. I was living with multiple other war-ravaged citizens in a house that was protected by several fences. There were people protecting the place, but they were just barely successful. Enough enemies made it through to make just leaving the house a dangerous act. Going outside the first fence was life-threatening. Going beyond the second fence was suicide. The third and fourth fences had been damaged to the point of being little good. Unreal Tournament 3 vehicles were everywhere, particularly the Necris ones. There was constant noise of gunfire.

Inside the house, all we could do was watch, wait, and try to think up an escape plan. There was a device in our possession that contained important enemy plans and information. We knew it was only a matter of time before the house would be captured, but we didn't plan to be there when it happened. Every time we'd gather around and suggest possible escape plans, someone would discover a fatal problem with the idea and we'd come up empty handed (or empty-minded, as it were).

Well, the house's heater broke that day, and it fell to me to go and fix it. One of the girls that was also taking refuge in the house had become my girlfriend during our time there, so she tagged along to give me some company. We headed down the stairs to the old house's basement and into a room filled with machinery. Most of it was functioning, but sure enough, the furnace was dead. We talked and she handed me whatever tools I needed as I went about my work. I realized how much I valued her right then. Even in the middle of war, we could make a cheerful conversation and truly not be afraid simply because we had each other. Just after this realization hit me, the furnace kicked back into action and began heating the place again. My gf clapped and we headed upstairs.

Then the dream went into 'spectator mode' and I saw a normal guy who was guarding the house outside the fence suddenly transform into a red version of the Green Goblin from Spiderman! And I could feel his intentions change from guarding the house to destroying it.

Back in myself, in the house, my gf and I had just come up the stairs to hear everyone talking about the Red Goblin. We didn't know why, but we knew he was coming, and we had to defend ourselves. No sooner was I told this than Red burst inside. Everyone panicked, and for good reason too. I watched in horror as he tore the throat of anyone who was in his way and then knocked them away with a single blow. I grabbed my gf, pulled her into a nearby closet, and then closed the door. "What are we going to do?" She whispered. I fumbled around in the darkness until I found the flashlight that I knew was there. Once the light was on, I pointed it in the corner. A trap door was visible. "We're going to go outside." I replied. "It's too late to save everyone now, we just have to save ourselves." One more moment of listening to the screaming coming from outside the closet and she knew I was right. We crawled into the trapdoor and through the little passageway until finally we made it to the other end...which led us right outside into the snow.

"Look! There he is!" My gf shouted, pointing. I looked, and sure enough, the Red Goblin was leaving the building. He had something in his hand. Zooming in (with my eyes), I saw it to be the device with all the enemy plans! As soon as I zoomed back out, I saw my gf running over to the body of a fallen soldier. She grabbed his weapons, tossed one to me, and started running. "Wait!" I shouted as I ran after her. "No, don't follow him! You'll be killed!" But she wouldn't stop. A bomb shell flew down right in front of me and threw me backwards, face down into the snow, and by the time I got back up, neither the Red Goblin nor my gf was in sight. I ran until I got to the fence and then peeked over. Still no sign of either one of them. That meant they were beyond the second fence, in the hottest part of the battle.

Something in my heart screamed for my gf then. Suddenly I abandoned all sense of personal safety and decided I was going to bring her back to safety if I had to fight every enemy soldier alone. I was not going to let her die! So I jumped over the first fence, ran past several vehicles and soldiers who were exchanging fire, and then jumped over the second fence. Immediately, someone in a Scavenger vehicle started shooting at me. I dove and rolled out of the way and then came back up just in time to deliver a headshot to the enemy soldier. Before anything else could happen, I pushed him out of the cockpit and took over.

As I started driving off, something weird happened. I didn't RC or anything...I just suddenly realized something. "Hey!" I said. "This is a dream! Well, that means I don't need to go save her, then. I can just turn around, and she'll be there!" I turned around, and she wasn't there. I forgot to RC or rub hands, so my level of dream control wasn't the best. I didn't think to totally change the dream, but honestly I didn't want to anyway; I thought things were pretty cool as they were. "Oh well. At least I know she'll be alive, since I can decide that!" And off I went back to the first fence, taking down enemies left and right. I decided I would find my gf outside the first fence, and she would have the device with her. This time, my decision worked. I found her right where I expected to, and she did have the device. She was very badly wounded, though, and couldn't stand up. She was leaning against the fence, sitting on the ground.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" She said as I jumped out of the scavenger and ran over to her. "I just wanted to help stop the war...I didn't want this to happen." "You're not going to die." I said gently. "How do you know?" She replied, a tear forming in her eye. "Because..." I reached up and touched a bloody spot on her face, and healed it. "...I won't let you." I then healed all of her wounds, picked her up, and flew off into the air. "Where are we going?" She asked. "Somewhere safe." I replied. And that's exactly where we went; I didn't stop flying until I came to a house far, far away from the war and snow. "Wait here." I told her. "I have one more thing I need to take care of. I just wanted to make sure you were safe." We hugged briefly, and then I flew back into the heat of battle.

As I entered the snowy area again, I watched for the Red Goblin. It wasn't long before I saw him going along on a hoverboard. I yelled to distract him, then dove down and ran right into him, knocking him clean off his hoverboard. We then engaged in an epic duel, mainly using pyrokinesis to fight each other. Of course I couldn't be burned because I knew that the fire didn't exist. Unfortunately, I didn't see how the battle ended, however, because I shortly thereafter woke up.

This lucid dream brought to you by Confidence Induced Lucid Dream. I did not RC during the day or anything like that because I'm not in the habit of it right now due to my recent cold. I simply believed I would have a lucid dream, and I did!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

WOW! Just, wow! I succeeded at WILD again last night, and it was the best one yet!


So I naturally woke up at 5:00am, like I usually do (for reasons I have yet to understand), and lay in bed for about ten minutes before I woke up enough to realize that I was even awake. When that realization finally hit, it woke me up enough that a long WBTB seemed unnecessary. I didn't even get out of bed; instead I just rolled over to a new and comfortable position and then waited for the HI. They came visibly and audibly within a couple minutes. So I started counting.

"1...I'm dreaming...2...I'm dreaming..."

I did it pretty mindlessly, but it was just enough to keep me conscious. Before long I was seeing white everywhere and feeling the energy pulses as I did last time. And I had this urge to do something--anything! But I felt like if I just sat there I'd lose it. So I did the first thing that came to mind; with my eyes still closed, I started doing push-ups in my bed! (Really at this point I was in SP and in my dream body) And then, with a loud wooshing noise, it was like my consciousness was sucked away. I collapsed on the bed and everything went black. So I tried to open my eyes. I was in my bathroom, and I knew the WILD had succeeded. But everything was so real! A quick RC completely affirmed my state, however, and I thought of things to do. "Hmm...I recently said on dreamviews that I wouldn't mind lucid dreaming a level or two of Tomb Raider. When I open this door, I'll be in Croft Manor!" I opened the bathroom door, but I saw my hallway outside. "Dang. Try something else." I thought about teleportation, and the first thing that came to my head was how Hiro Nakamura teleports in the Heroes TV show. Figured it was worth a try. So I thought "Croft Manor", closed my eyes, and worked hard at it until my head shook from concentration. I heard the familiar teleportation sound from Heroes and then opened my eyes again. I was standing right in the doorway to Croft Manor!

The place was incredible; everything was exactly as it appeared in the game, only far more realistic. Even the patterns on the carpets inside were true to Tomb Raider: Anniversary! "Now to find Lara Croft!" As I said this, I turned around, pointing at the place where I wanted her to appear. At that moment she walked through the door that I was pointing at. "There you are!" I said. "Where shall we go? Vilcabamba? Coastal Thailand?" She wasn't nearly so excited. "What are you doing here?" She replied angrily as she walked by, not even looking me in the face. "Well come on, don't you want to go?" I asked. "Not with you!" She retorted. I tried to talk nice to her then and soften her attitude, but it didn't work. So I followed her as she walked outside and made a picnic lunch appear in the middle of the mansion's huge lawn. She didn't go for that, either. I guess being rich actually made Lara a snob after all

Giving up on that idea, I tried teleporting away to somewhere else (although I can't remember where, now). Instead of going there I ended up in my bed, in another false awakening. "What, it's over? Better reality check to make sure." I pinched my nose and breathed in. No air went through. But it didn't feel right, somehow, so I did it again, this time only pinching one side and then slowly pinching the other as I breathed in. This time air went through, and I knew I was in a false awakening. A moment of panic hit me, then. It felt like I had already been in a dream for a couple hours. I wondered if I'd ever truly wake up, or if I'd just keep having false awakenings. That fear left as quickly as it came, though. I figured it had only been a few real minutes, and besides, I wouldn't mind living in a lucid dream for a long time anyway, considering I was in full control right now.

I teleported back to the Croft Manor to figure out where I should go next. Lara was still there, and still unhappy, so I just flew around near the ceiling to stay out of her way. "Flying...flying...wait! I flew that girl around before. I should bring her back and we can fly someplace again!" So that's exactly what I did. I landed on the ground and tried to summon her. A girl appeared, but it was just a silhouette of an old woman. "You're not the right one." So I turned around and pointed, as I had done before, saying: "This is really her!" And sure enough, there she was! Her back was turned to me, though, so I was a bit nervous that her face wouldn't be right. I tapped her shoulder and she turned around. Not a single inch of her face was inaccurate! "Hi!" She smiled, and I could tell she was remembering our last flying adventure. "You ready to go?" I asked as I picked her up just as we had done before.

It was then that Lara got jealous. "Wait a minute, what do you mean, go? You can't go without me!" I shrugged. "Sorry, actually I can. You're not real." And then I flew off with the girl to the middle of the maze behind Croft Manor and landed there. I knew Lara wouldn't find us there in time. We laughed from the joy of flying and escaping that way. "You want to go get something to eat?" I asked. "Sure! That sounds good." "Where do you want to go?" "Anywhere's fine with me." I couldn't help chuckling, considering she had no idea that I could take her literally anywhere. "No," I said, caressing her cheeks with my hands. "You choose. Please." She nodded slowly, getting the idea that I would do anything for her. "Alright. How about..." and she mentioned the name of a restaurant that I can no longer remember. It started with an 'N', but that's all I can recall. "Ah! That's a good place. Here; just put your hands on my shoulders and we can teleport there." She did, and I successfully teleported us to the restaurant the same way I had teleported before.

When I opened my eyes, we were in a very cool building. The lights were dimmed, people were everywhere, and cool mexican-sounding music was being played on a stage a short ways away. It was all 100% real. "This is so much better than real life!" I shouted. I didn't want anyone to hear, though, so no one did. The girl was in front of me. "Come on!" She said, pulling me by the hand. I was almost in a daze; I just couldn't get over how great everything was, so it was good that she was there to pull me along. For some reason we had to go through a ticket booth to get inside, even though no one was taking or giving tickets. When it came to be my turn to go through, the guy standing at the counter said, "Have a good time!" I shook his hand just to see what it felt like. My fingernail caught on his hand as I did so, making him flinch. It felt real, that's for sure. Skin slightly rough, a bit of sweat...even the creases in his palm. "Sorry about that, dude." I nodded towards the place my fingernail had caught. "That's alright man! Go have a good night with your girlfriend!" Well, that was interesting.

I ran and caught up to the girl, who was looking for a table. "Is this ok?" She asked, pulling back a chair to sit in. "Looks good to me!" I took the other seat. "Hey, umm..." I began as I reached across the table and held her hand. "What would you say...we are? Not...not in real life, I mean, but...in here." She didn't get it. "What? What do you mean...'in here'?" I didn't want to say outright that it was a dream, since by now I was pretty sure that I was shared dreaming with this girl. Make her go lucid, and she could figure out that were sharing a dream and that I really do care for her. So I skipped the dream thing entirely and asked plainly: "Would you say you're my girlfriend?" She smiled.

Then I lost the dream and woke up!

I know! Of all times to wake up! I mean, COME ON! Just ten more seconds and I could have had an answer! I tried desperately to WILD again and get back to that spot, but of course it didn't work. It had been a couple hours, and I wasn't at all tired any more. REM was done. I couldn't relax.

Oh well. It was still my best WILD yet! And I'm getting better at doing it right, so hopefully before long I'll be able to use it to go lucid very often indeed!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Had kind of a weird experience last night. I tried a new WILD technique called NSSWILD (Natural Sleep Simulation Wake Induced Lucid Dream) that was going great...and I fell asleep again. But I was exceptionally tired last night, so it's not a big surprise/disappointment. On a less tiring day I'll probably be able to get through no problem!

But the weird thing I mentioned came when I fell asleep and dreamed regularly. I never did an RC or recognize a dream sign...I just suddenly thought "this is a dream, after all" as I went about, and went lucid! Here's the dream:

False memory told me that I had directed and acted in a smash-hit movie on a low budget in the past, so now I was part of a high-budget movie with all the big sets and professional cameras and all that. It was great. And we were about to shoot the climax of the film; when the guy (me) saves the girl, the villain raises his ugly head in apparent victory, and there are lots and lots of explosions. We ended up re-doing the scene several times for one reason or another, but finally, after two or three times, I randomly went lucid and just asked a DC for a quick review of everything I was supposed to do. Of course there were other things I could have done, being lucid, but I had already seen what kind of movie we were filming, and I really wanted to act it out being lucid. So once I got a crash course on my part, I decided to go play it for all I was worth. The scene began with the girl badly ill, in a hospital room several stories up. The hospital wasn't normal, though, being a black and twisty tower. The nurse said she was going to go get medicine, but as it turned out, as soon as she had left the room, we heard several short beeps, like on a keypad, and then the base of the building shot out flames, and a chain reaction was started that continued to the top. The place was collapsing! I punched the nurse and threw her out the window, but she shape-shifted into the evil (male) villain she truly was and grabbed onto the side of building on the way down, landing safely. I picked up the girl and carried her on back, then ran for the elevator down. It broke halfway down the first floor, and flames jetted down out of the ceiling as debris landed on top. I noticed that it melted a part of the steel wall, however, so I kicked with all my might and broke a hole through. Stairs were visible, so I carefully pushed the girl through, and then did a dive through the hole myself, landing in a roll and coming back up on my feet. The girl back on my back I began to run down the stairs, which were one of two spiraling stair cases. On the other staircase was the villain, who had hoped to capture us in the elevator. "Give up!" He shouted across the gap, which was filled with explosions and flames. "Even if you get out of here alive, your father won't. You'll have to choose...him, or her!" "Just watch me!" I replied, taking off in a run. But I couldn't get down any farther, because in the delay, the stairs broke on both ends of the room. The villain actually fell through his stair and landed in the flames, but still managed to escape in time (he was definitely not human...a pitch black creature with long, gnarled fingers and fingernails of a similar description). I managed to step back in time to not fall, but all of the stairs were weakened now, so I turned to the girl, who was barely conscious. "Can you hold on?" "I'll...try..." She held herself on my back, and I jumped, swinging from remaining stair to remaining stair, to pipe sticking out of the wall, to monkey-barring across exposed rebar and running on walls. That, combined with explosions and flames and all that, was quite epic. But then when I got to the bottom of the building, I kept the girl with me, rather than handing her off to someone else as we had done in previous shots. Instead, I ran to my aforementioned father (who looked exactly like my real life father, but acted nothing like him) and made him leave on a subway. I guess he worked around there or something. At first he protested, but I simply said to him: "I can heal; I'll survive the fire and all this. But you've got to get out of here! Take her with you; please, she'll die without some help!" This convinced him, and he left. The building began completely collapsing as the subway departed. I ran with super-speed out of there, but things went into slow-motion. Huge chunks of ceiling dropped down and nearly hit me, but I'd either dodge them, flip over them, or do any other number of cool move. Suffice it to say most of the time I was running on falling debris and not the floor. I made it outside just in time, but there was still the tower falling down, and it was headed right for me and my dream character friends (whom I knew by false memory). Telekinesis presented itself as the first option, so I held up my hands and pushed the tower the other way, so that it fell on top of the enemy army rather than us. I was then in third-person, viewing the scene through the eyes of the camera. I turned around, again in slow motion, with this cool grey and white cloak shading my face, the building collapsing in the background and sending a rush of wind my way, blowing the cloak in the wind. I simply walked, not panicked at all, proving the lengths of my control to everyone around. It was one of those classic, epic shots. Next thing I know, I was back in myself, and a bunch of people from Star Wars were asking me to lead them in battle. I woke up before I could, but I'm sure it would have been epic.

Honestly, it sounds a tad bit dumb when I write it, but it was quite awesome going through it! :bravo:

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, I still fell asleep during my multiple WILD attempts, but at least I managed to have decent recall and even go lucid a couple times, although briefly!

Anyway, here is what went on in my head last night:

Dream 1: It was several years in the past. My siblings and I were still together with our parents and we were in Florida on vacation. We had this rental car with a ceiling that stuck downward in the middle and had a panel on the side with a red bar, a timer, and a phone (one of those old, curly-corded ones). We assumed the red bar and timer were to measure how many phone minutes we had left. I tried to think of people I could call just to see if it worked, but I couldn't think of any numbers, and just having the phone off the hook took off of our time. By the time we reached our destination, we only had 50 minutes left, which transferred wirelessly to the parking meter in front of us. "Oh great!" My dad complained. "You used up all but 50 minutes of our time!" "I think that's just for the phone, though." One of my sisters said. "No," my dad explained, "that's for the entire car! We can't use it anymore after that time runs up! That means we won't be able to stay here for more than five minutes if we want to get back to the hotel in time! I can't believe this..."

I woke up and realized I hadn't stayed awake through the WILD. "Ok, from this point on, if I see my family, or...or anyone, I'm dreaming." And then I fell back asleep, hoping that would at least be enough to get me lucid.

Dream 2: I was baby-sitting two of my nieces in the present day. They wanted to go down in the basement to play Xbox. Now even though I didn't go lucid yet, this kind of struck me as odd for multiple reasons: 1) I don't have an Xbox, 2) if I did, my nieces wouldn't be interested in playing it, and 3) it wouldn't be in the basement because there's no TV down there. So I went down to get a game set up for them. There was a pretty big TV there, as well as a couch and lounge chair around it. I went over and found the Xbox and turned it on. Then I look up and find the TV shrunk down to just having a screen a couple inches across! "Are you sure this screen is big enough for you guys?" I asked. "Yeah, it's fine." One of them replied. I turned around then and noticed something really strange: the lightbulb in the ceiling was out, but the room was still lit. I walked over to it and pulled on the string to turn it on. Nothing happened. Pulled again, still nothing changed. "Ok, this is so weird." So I did a reality check. I thought I felt air come through my nose with it pinched. "I must not have pinched very hard...no way this is a dream. But I need to do it again just to make sure." I did, and this time I was beginning to be convinced otherwise. One more time, and I was fully lucid! I dropped all concerns for my nieces now that I knew they weren't really there and I ran up the stairs to get outside so I could fly somewhere interesting. Unfortunately I ran a bit too fast. The dream started to weaken. I rubbed my hands and tried to spin around, but I couldn't hold on to the dream...it had gone on for too long as a non-lucid and now the REM was almost over. As the dream faded I began losing balance, so I grabbed for the door and railing on the stairs, also clinging to the sensation of those objects being there. But nothing could stop it.

I woke up, of course. I'm not sure when I fell back asleep, but I'm pretty sure it was during another WILD attempt

Dream 3: I was lucid from the very beginning this time, but I found myself in a place like the construct from the Matrix. Everything was white, save for a TV and a couple chairs...and three DC's who were standing there. One was a girl, another a tall and strong man, the other a short and stocky kind of guy. I didn't have time to think of going anywhere or doing anything I had set out to do in waking life, because these DC's ran up to me and each one started begging me to make them the star of a movie. "This is your dream, only you can do this for me!" Each one kept repeating. "Ok, ok, guys, if it will get you to leave me alone, I'll make all of you the stars of a movie." That wasn't good enough for them. "No, I want to the be the star instead of the other two of them!" (Man, DC's sure can be selfish!) "I choose the lady, then." I lost lucidity at that point as well as my body and I watched as a short 'video clip' played before my eyes with the girl as the star actress. It was some kind of action adventure film; I can't remember much of it. I do remember hearing a voice telling me the future of the girl because of the film, though, mentioning other movies that she was in and how this one started it all for her. After that ended, however, I was back at the construct place, still not lucid, and the tall guy was there. "Now you have to make me the star." He said. "It's not fair that I don't get a chance to prove my worth. I can act twice as good as her; you'll see." So I made him the star, and the video replayed with him in it. He wasn't a great actor, honestly. He made mistakes left and right. Again the narrator voice talked about the future of the star actor, but I can't remember what it said about him. The video clip over, I was in the construct once more, with just Mr. Shorty left. He was wearing a suit and black sunglasses, and he was a black guy now, too. "Hey man." He said. "Just give me a chance. Don't leave ol' shorty out now, right? I'll show ya. I can act for real." I don't remember actually giving him the part, but the video clip replayed with the short guy in there (now as a bald white man with a long moustache). He stopped the other actors, though, and had them totally rearrange the set. He turned the film into a comedy about twin aviators, both played by him. The narrator once again chimed in, talking about how this guy's skills as a director ended up surpassing his acting skills and making him famous for several movies...or something like that.

This time when the dream was over I didn't have time to go back to sleep, so I just lay in bed and worked on recall of all these. So that's what happened last night.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I give up on my watch alarm. I've tried all sorts of things to try and fix it, all to no avail. It just doesn't go off any more.

Last night I had it set for the middle of the night, and I intended to WILD and WBTB. I know, I've only made one WILD last very long, but I was determined this time.

As it turned out, I still woke up without my watch, but at 5:30am. Not quite as good as an hour earlier, but I still decided to give it a shot. At that point I also thought about dream recall a bit, and remembered one single dream.

Dream 1: It was like watching a slideshow of photoshopped family photos. I saw memories of mine flash by every few seconds with just a bit of reality distorted by a lot of fantasy. They seemed to go in somewhat of a chronological order, too. But things didn't stop when they reached the present day. No, after that, I saw future events that I am planning on happening as if they were memories. About a week out into the future, the dream ended.

So having recalled all that I could, I got out of bed, stretched, went to the bathroom so I wouldn't have any interruptions during the WILD, and then got back into bed. At first I tried it on my back as usual, but also as usual, all I got was a tingly feeling in my arms; not anywhere else, and no paralysis whatsoever. So I tried turning my head to the side to trick myself into thinking I was sleeping sideways as normal. That fared little better, though I did have some very faint HI that way. So I thought, "Why can't I WILD when I'm really on my side, then?" and decided to give it a shot. I rolled over to my side, sandwiched my head between two pillows so I was encapsulated in total darkness and silence, and then went on with the attempt.

For a long time nothing really happened. I thought about trying to count breaths or listen to a lucid MP3, but in the end I figured that all that stuff had already failed for me many times and it was time for me to go all on my own as I had that first night that I WILDed successfully.

What seemed like a few seconds later (but probably was much longer), I heard a faint sound. An echo of someone in the far distance, talking about something that I could not remember the instant the echo stopped. Encouraged by this progress, I continued to wait. In another few seconds, a shelf loaded with fresh vegetables (don't ask me why; I don't know) appeared in full color. I glanced at it momentarily, then ignored it, and it seemed to blur and float away. Next I saw a man in a suit sitting behind a desk float towards me in the darkness. Before long I could tell his face was the face of the G-Man from my horrible 3-month dream. I purposefully eliminated that image. That seemed to be all I needed, anyway. My sensations were suddenly schewed after that. I felt like I was still conscious of my body, and yet I knew that what I was feeling was not my real body, because it started to wave about as if riding on water and conforming to the shape of the wave. That sensation was stopped by the feeling of someone reaching their arms around me and holding me tightly. I probably would have freaked out, but I could hear movement behind me and soon I felt lips brush against my ear. "It's all going to be all right." A gentle, female voice whispered. This feeling of extreme security and peace came over me then, and I let her (whoever 'she' is) hold on as long as she wanted. The bodily distortions continued for several more minutes, and a few times I was even able to move my perceived arm, which made my real arm attempt to move, but unsuccessfully. She let go soon after that and seemed to fade away behind me. Once again, I was alone. But then, all of a sudden, everything went white. A strong buzz was in my ears, and it was like an earthquake couple with an EMP went off. The ground shook, energy seemed to hit me in waves, growing in intensity with time. And then, at the peak of it all...it all just faded away. I found myself high in the sky, and looking down below me, I saw a huge canyon. I could see for hundreds of miles around me, and the canyon went through all of it. The sky was bright and clear, other than a few white clouds. Since I was already in the air, I had no trouble trying to get off the ground and fly. I just flew as usual, and went all over the place. It was incredible how realistic it was; I have never had a dream with such a large and wide-open view before. After I had gone through some of those clouds and enjoyed feeling the cool air and wind on my face, I flew straight down towards the bottom of the canyon at high speed. It was very fun! Of course, I curved upward right before I hit the ground and started speeding through the canyons, every inch of which looked just like real life. Every crack, every shadow, variations in colors...all of it looked perfect. But then something weird happened. I flew past a cowboy with a banjo that was playing and singing in front of a little campfire. I should have only been able to hear him for a brief moment as I flew past, but his voice continued even as I went miles away. That little loss of realism signaled the beginning of the end. I was just about to fly somewhere else (like Pandora), when everything started to go black and I woke up with a start.

I think I finally figured out my problem with WILDing! Up to this point, I was trying to use everyone else's techniques when really all I had to do was what worked for me in the first place!