lucid

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Finally I went lucid again!

Again my watch alarm did not work for me, but it turned out not to matter. Actually, if it had gone off, I probably would have ended up not going lucid. You'll see why here in a minute.

Dream 1: I found myself in an incredible city. Everything looked very historical, even though it was all clean and kept-up as new. As I walked around, I saw an old-fashioned ice cream parlour and decided to go in and check it out. Now, I had ice cream shortly before going to bed, so I expect that had something to do with it . Inside, I saw one of my friends, a girl I had flown around in a previous dream. Of course, I bought her some ice cream and we sat down outside to eat it and chat. Shortly after our ice cream was gone, a taxi pulled up just a few yards away from us and let a small family in. "Come on!" My friend said, heading for the taxi. "I don't think there will be room for us." I commented, following anyway. As I got closer, I noticed the license plate on the taxi was "I C U", a clear reference to Avatar. As it turned out, there really was no room left for us, but that didn't even phase my friend. She just sat on the back of the car and waited for me to do likewise; it was as if she did this on a regular basis. It turned out to be pretty nice, though, riding around that city on the back of a taxi. We had a clear view unobstructed by a roof and doors, and we could hop off at any place we wanted to. Even though I remember several details about the places we stopped at, it's hard to sort them out in order, since we went so many different places. Suffice it to say that much...'we went many different places.' I bought her a few things and we had a lot of fun. Towards the end of the day, I could keep my mouth shut no longer, and though I don't remember what exactly I said, it was something to the effect of 'I love you'. I was afraid she would leave me then, but she only smiled to one side of her mouth and led me off somewhere. I was glad that she reacted well, but I didn't get to see where she was leading me off to, because soon after I woke up.

As soon as I was awake enough to make any conscious thoughts, I thought back through that dream to make sure I remembered it and then checked my watch. It was shortly after 4:00. My watch alarm was set for 3:50, and it hadn't gone off at all. Good thing...if it had, it would have interrupted that dream!

Well, I decided to try for DEILD then, and it wasn't long before I succeeded.

Dream 2: I was back at that historical city, but on the outer edge of it now, on a beach. The city was shortly to my left, and the ocean to my right. In the distance, I saw my friend was still there. I guess she was going to lead me to the beach. But then it hit me: "Wait a second...this is a dream!" Almost immediately after I realized this, my friend saw me and called out my name as she ran in my direction. When we met, we threw our arms around each other . Remembering the time I had flown her around before, I decided to do so again...only for some strange reason, I just couldn't fly! I kept trying, but of course now I was...well, trying, not expecting, so I wasn't going anywhere. Rather than continue to fight it, then, I considered another option and decided it would work ok. With a thought, I caused the ground beneath us to rise up and push us higher and higher towards the sky, continually building up beneath our feet. Before long we reached the clouds, which it turned out we could scoop up into our hands. They were cold and wet, though. Figuring we were high enough, I stopped the upward advance of the ground. "I've got an idea." I said to my friend. "Hold on to my hand." She did so, and then after a count to three, we jumped off the top of the pillar I had made out of the ground and we dove down into the ocean, falling hundreds of miles until landing comfortably in the water. I noticed I could breath under the water, which was pretty cool, but even so I went back up to the beach because that's where the girl was going. As I made it onto the beach, I looked down and was amazed at how realistic the sand was. Because I was wet it clung to me in millions of little grains just like in real life. But anyway, when I reached her, I pulled a couple towels out of thin air and handed her one. "How'd you do that?" she asked. "Oh, that's my little secret." Now that I think about it, I find it funny that making the ground rise up didn't phase her, but pulling towels out of thin air did . After that we just sat on the sand close together and watched the sun set. The colors were incredible...it was almost better than a real beach sunset, honestly. After a while of doing that, I woke up.

It was still early enough for me to stay in bed a while, so I tried very hard to DEILD again and re-enter the dream, but to no avail. Oh well. At least I finally had a lucid dream again! Life was getting kinda boring without 'em

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Oooh, we've got new smilies!

Oh yeah, and last night was a great LDing night for me, too! Two LD's, both of them accomplishing the lucid task of the month (basic and advanced)!

Dream 1: I was walking around in my backyard at night when I looked up and saw the sun in the sky. "What? The sun at night? That doesn't make any sense...this must be a dream!" I pinched my nose and breathed in just fine, solidifying my assumption. "Cool! Well, let's see, I've got three things I've been wanting to do...oh well, the sun's right there, so I guess I'll go with the basic task of the month first." I looked at the sun and flew up to it. The dark sky looked a bit more fitting once I got into space. Well, I circled around it a couple times until I found a place that looked like a good entry spot, and then flew right inside. Surprisingly, it didn't feel very bright. I mean, it looked like someone had photoshopped the sun to lose half of its saturation, so even though it was bright, it was...not. But whatever, it was the sun, and surprisingly, I did have a shadow this time! Probably just because I was looking for it, though. I didn't get much more time to think about it, though, because I woke up pretty quickly after that.

I was awake for about fifteen minutes then; I had intended to WILD but I was pretty tired so I broke it off soon after SP hit and decided I would DILD again instead.

Dream 2: I can't exactly remember everything that went on at first, but eventually I found myself watching football early in the morning and really enjoying it. Now there were a couple things about that scenario that made me question the reality of it. #1: I don't believe football is ever played early in the morning, and #2: I hate football, so I wouldn't know for sure in the first place, but I also wouldn't watch it and enjoy it . That much being thought through, I decided to reality check, which of course led me to becoming lucid! "Alright! Let's see...I got the basic task of the month down...let's go for the advanced now!" I turned and faced a wall and tried my usual teleportation method. "When I turn around, I'll be at Niagara Falls." I turned around and found the room to be mostly unchanged. I was definitely not at the falls. But something had changed, and that was the wall across from me. It now had a very large picture of Niagara Falls hanging on it, and a little table beneath it. "That'll work." I walked over and moved the table out of the way, then reached into the picture, first with my hand, then with my leg, then with the rest of me, and stepped through the picture into Niagara Falls! I found myself on a wooden walkway that circled around it, but I needed to get out onto the Maiden of the Mist in order to complete the advanced lucid task. Now I can't swim very well IRL, but I didn't let that even factor into it. I jumped into the water and began swimming out to the Maiden of the Mist, which was in the near distance. The water was amazing! It was so clear and clean and the temperature was perfect. Not to mention it, along with everything else, was so realistic I was just marveling at the sight of it all. Well, soon I made it to the ship and climbed up to the top deck. "Ok, so now I have to get married here to complete the lucid task...I wonder who I'm going to be married to?" I looked up ahead of me and got my answer. It wasn't hard to figure out, considering the whole thing was already set up, everybody was there, and she was the only one in a fancy white dress. "Woah, that works for me!" I thought when I saw her. I tried hard to remember her face, but of course that memory faded when I awoke. I do remember her name was Maria, though. I transformed my dripping wet clothes into a dry tux and then took my place in front of everyone, next to Maria. I couldn't believe it when the 'pastor' walked up, though...he was some kind of alien! "Well that's weird..." I thought. But it got weirder. A small, hovering alien that resembled a fish came up out of nowhere and tried to stop the wedding. "Oh buzz off." I said, hurling the thing away with telekinesis. The rest of the ceremony went on without interruption, and I gotta admit, the first alien dude wasn't so bad at his job after all. What was really fun was the reception, though. Everybody went below deck (does the Maiden of the Mist even have a lower deck?) where food and (non-alcoholic) drink and music and all our friends were waiting. Of course the food was amazing, and they only played my favorite songs, but nothing could beat the reactions of the dream characters. They all came up and told us congratulations, and I just smiled at each one and replied, "Pretty cool dream, huh?" Usually they just gave me a funny look and walked away, but there was one guy who didn't take it so well. He thought it was a joke at first. "Yeah, it can feel like a dream at first. It sinks in after the first couple days, though." He said. "No, no, I really mean this is a dream, I can pinch my nose and still breath in. Watch." It didn't convince him. He just stared at me. "Umm...yeah it's really a dream." I repeated. "THIS is NOT a DREAM!" He shouted before stomping off. "Woah...ok...then." After a moment of nobody saying anything to us, Maria slapped me on the arm. "You're making people upset!" She said. "Now c'mon, would this really be a dream?" "Yes." I replied. I took her hand and put it up to her nose, told her to pinch, and then try to breath in. "See." I said. A tear formed in her eye. "You're right, then...this is a dream!" It made her so sad I kind of wished I hadn't said anything, but at least someone else knew the truth. I went to go get us drinks in hopes of cheering her up a bit, but when I came back, she was gone. "That's weird." I thought out loud. Just then, a friend of mine walked by. "Hey, Mike. Mike!" I ran up to him as he headed to the restroom. "Have you seen my wife anywhere?" He motioned for me to follow him into the restroom. "Sorry," he said, "This is just the only place that I think we'll have some privacy." He went into a stall as he talked. I went into one myself just because it was awkward standing out there waiting, and to be honest I was kind of wondering what it would be like to pee in a lucid dream . "You know that little floating alien?" Mike asked. "Well, he's furious that the wedding went through. He kidnapped Maria. I tried to stop him, but...I can't fly." "Dangit, yes you can." I muttered under my breath. Mike was done then, so I decided to be done, too. I mean, in a lucid dream, you could keep going for forever! While we washed our hands, I asked, "So where'd he take her?" Mike didn't have a chance to answer. We heard the alien's voice outside the door. "Quick! Hide!" Mike said. I created a closet door in the wall next to me and climbed inside. The floating alien came in, checked himself in the mirror, and then left. "So do I need to hide because he's trying to kidnap me, too?" "Yep. I don't know where he took your wife, but I don't think you want to find out the hard way." "True. So how do we get out of here without me being caught, or you being caught helping me?" Mike smiled at that question. "Canoes." That made me smile, too. We climbed out the window and stood on the side of the ship. Suddenly we were at the top of Niagara falls. A couple canoes were tied to the boat, and we each took one and got in. "Now this is going to be awesome!" I shouted over the roar of the approaching falls. In another moment, we had completely gone over, and were canoeing down Niagara Falls! The canoes were smashed at the bottom, but of course we made it out ok.

After that we got to formulating a plan. Mike volunteered to get a bunch of his buddies together to help arrange transport to wherever the alien had taken Maria to, and I took Mike's laptop to go find out just where that was. I hacked into some security cameras until I found the alien's location. "Bingo." I said...which got the attention of a nearby security guard. "Hey, you there, what do you think you're doing!?" I sighed. "Sorry doc, I don't have time for this." I held my hands in front of me, concentrated, and made the guard disappear into thin air. So I took the sword left behind from the security guard (yeah...he had one ) and tried to sneak up onto the alien back aboard the ship. Of course since the whole wedding party was there, someone heard and saw me, so stealth failed. I swung at the alien, but missed, and he then pulled out a sword of his own and we had an epic duel. He was hard to hit, but weak, so before long, I had him on the floor, badly wounded, his weapon far out of his reach. "Alright! Alright!" He said, giving up. "Your wife is in the caves. North west. Only way in is by river." For some reason, everyone was shocked to hear the alien confess to a crime like that, but I left them to deal judgment however they wished. I flew around until I found Mike, who had a bunch of midgets with pointy gray beards and mustaches build a water craft. I couldn't fly through the caves because they were too low and treacherous, so I gladly accepted the vehicle from them. As I climbed in and took the strange controls, they wished me luck and cheered for my victory over the floating alien. I started the wooden craft off into the caves, having a little trouble driving at first, but never got a chance to find Maria. Pretty quickly after entering the caves, I woke up.

I didn't think I could have a dream that was more realistic than any previous one, but that one tops them all. The appearance and actions of water are very hard things to duplicate, yet it all looked perfect. Lighting was all totally realistic, too. If I hadn't repeatedly pinched my nose to maintain lucidity, I probably would have started to believe it was real myself.

But anyway, I completed both the basic and advanced lucid task of the month in one night!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, maybe I don't have to get back to heavy reality checking after all! Last night I had a very clear lucid without MILD or WILD or even focusing on RCing throughout the day!

I woke up in the night, disappointed that I had not yet gone lucid in a dream. “Alright,” I said, “Anything other than me in my room with my eyes closed is a dream and I need to realize that and reality check!” I was determined. So I rolled over and instantly went back to sleep.


It seemed only a moment later that I found myself on a dreamy landscape of a farm. “This is something other than me in my bed...which makes it a dream!” I realized pretty quickly that I didn't have control over anything. “No! I am not going to have a weak lucid again!” With that, I forced my hand to move, sending tingles running through my arm as sensations entered, clumsily reached it up to my hose, pinched, and breathed in. That put me in control, but it also made the dream go black.

It reappeared a moment later, and I was in a bed. Not my own, though, and my eyes were open, so I still knew it was a dream. I pinched my nose again to check, this time without any control struggle. I rolled over and prepared to get up, but I still didn't have control exactly right...with every movement, my body shapeshifted. I tried to stop it, but that didn't work out so well either. The dream went black again.

This time it reappeared in a room very similar to one in my real house, yet still different. Mostly it was black, and pulsating into clarity every once in a while. I rubbed my hands to try and clear things up, which succeeded, but then if I kept on rubbing, it would go black again. Eventually I remembered to try spinning, which (as usual) did nothing until the dream faded enough to make me lose my balance and fall on the ground. The sudden collision jerked everything back into crystal clarity. With one last nose pinch, I was fully lucid and it was fully clear. I looked around the room. It seemed I had only been teleporting with each fade, as outside the windows was the farm land, and certain things about the room suggested that it was part of a farm house. The most noticeable thing was that mice were running all over the place, but since I knew it was a dream I just ignored them. I approached a wall, looked straight at it so that I couldn't see anything behind me, and leaned against it, supported by my outstretched arms. Somehow that made me feel like I was able to work harder. “When I turn around,” I said aloud, “a girl will be waiting there, and she'll be really pretty, too.” I turned around, but no one was there. “Hold on a minute...” I thought out-loud as I looked for a mouse. It didn't take long to find one. I reached my hand out toward it and used telekinesis to morph the mouse into a girl. At first she was only a few feet tall, so I got closer and then used my thoughts to fix that. “Taller.” She got taller, but within a few moments she was way too tall. “Shorter.” She began to shrink again. This time, when she got to the right height, I said, “Stop.” And she did. Then I noticed her face wasn't very distinctive...very unclear. So I put my hands on her face and concentrated. By the time I pulled my hands back, her face was as clear as the rest of the dream. I snapped my fingers and she snapped into life.

The girl ended up being different than I had intended, but somehow the difference made her more attractive. She felt more real because of the difference; not like a robot that had no existence in and of itself.

“Where...where am I?” She asked.

“Anywhere you want to be.” I answered.

I then jumped up, and in one motion picked her up and flew through the wall to the world outside. Unfortunately, the world outside wasn't so clear, and in a moment things faded out one last time.


It's kind of funny. During the day I think I'm going to have to try really hard in my dreams to create things that way, but when it comes time for it, I have no trouble with it at all, and the time it takes to create what I want is lessening with each try

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Sorry there was no entry for yesterday. I hit one of those nights where I just don't remember anything whatsoever, and I was busy, so I didn't try too hard to get around to writing anything.

Last night I had a bit of an interesting experience. I haven't been doing my typical reality checking lately so as to experiment with a few other things and also come back later to a point when that same RC will work for me again. Well, never would I have guessed that youtube could be a lucid dream induction technique!

Yes, that's right. Youtube got me my LD last night! It didn't stay lucid for long or look very clear, but still, for something so odd, I'm amazed it worked at all.

So here's what the situation was: I had barely reality checked all day long, and it was getting close to bed time, so I was thinking about lucid dreaming and kind of regretting that I didn't RC very well. And I mean it was right before bed. I was on my computer browsing youtube when I heard this song in a video that I really liked. In the comments, someone said what the song's name and author were, so I looked up the music video. As most music videos are, it was weird as...well, something really weird. That, combined with my tired state and the interesting music, put me in an odd mental condition. Somehow I knew that that music video was going to appear in my dream, and I determined that when it did, I would know I was dreaming. Sure enough, when I got to sleep (after a failed WILD attempt), I was going about my day as normal when I opened a door and I found myself in the middle of that music video. "What was I supposed to remember when I saw this? Oh, that's right! That this is a dream!" I jumped out a nearby window and saw a sidewalk and a street below me. "That's gonna hurt...I guess I could fly. But that would be a bit too expected and boring for this situation, wouldn't it?" So when I hit the concrete, I simply caused it to bend like rubber and cushion all around me before springing back up from impact and launching me into the air . I did a flip and landed on my feet at the top of a building where a friend of mine (who also LD's from time to time) was standing. "You'll never believe this," I told him, "But I just used youtube to get lucid!" "Really? That's crazy! How?" I explained it to him, but unfortunately in the process of doing so I soon lost lucidity, and the dream went on to this weird blur of real people and fictional people and all of them behaving very differently from how they should.

I'm just about ready to return to putting serious effort in my days to lucid dreaming, but I do think it's fascinating how I've been able to continue short LD's with little things like YILD (youtube-induced lucid dream )

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I didn't do so well with RCing yesterday, so when it came time for bed I decided to try for a MILD. I'm not sure how long I did the mantra out loud, but it was longer than I've ever done one before, and I kept mentally doing it until I went to sleep. It partially worked.

I was in Pandora, and when I looked down at myself, I found myself to be in an Avatar. No, I wasn't a genuine Na'vi, just an Avatar. After that I went a little ways, enjoying my surroundings, just to be stopped by an RDA soldier (man, they sure look tiny from that height ) It was some time after that that I lost lucidity. The dream continued strong, though, basically playing out the story of the Avatar movie, just with different characters. Of course, I was in the position of Jake, but there were replacements for the other main characters as well. They each had different names and faces, but I can't remember them now. At some point, when I first entered the Na'vi Hometree, I regained lucidity for a short while; just long enough to use what little Na'vi language I know on them. They weren't too impressed to say the least. The Na'vi in Neytiri's place taught me how to pronounce those words better, though. I didn't learn any new ones, since I lost lucidity again very soon. Anyway, it was very different to see that story from Jake's perspective. Really made the emotional side to it that much stronger.

If you've seen Avatar, you'll know what I mean, and so I don't need to re-write it all for you here, and if you haven't seen Avatar, then go see it and you'll know what I dreamed.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I just lived out three months of my life last night. It was the worst dream I have ever had in my entire life. If it were a movie, it would be rated R, or higher. By necessity, I have recorded foul language, but blocked out certain characters. Sorry it is so long, but it's hard to record three months at once and keep it short.

I was first aware of the dream when I became lucid. Oh, that I had not! I tried leaving the building I was in and going to Pandora, I tried using telekinesis, I tried doing everything, but even though I was lucid, I could do nothing. I was as limited in this dream as I am in real life. I couldn't even wake myself up. There were a couple others in the concrete and steel-piped room, but they simply watched me try to go through the wall as if it were expected of me as a newcomer. I shouted out in one final attempt, and only succeeded in hurting myself.

“No point in trying to escape.” An old man in the room said to me, slowly and depressed. “From this point on, all you can do is your best. The tests...will not be easy.”

I held up my hands, giving up. “Yeah, sure, whatever.”

The old man sighed. “Then...there is no hope for you.”

Just then, I saw a light on the floor; a door was opened behind me. Guards came in, wearing gas masks and black army uniforms. The leader said, “Take that one” as he pointed at me. His voice was deep and forbidding; he didn't have to shout or emphasize his words because it was obvious from his voice alone that no one would dare challenge him.

I didn't react to them at first. I figured if they grabbed me, I could just phase through their arms. But when they grabbed me and I realized I couldn't do that, I panicked. I fought and kicked and punched, but nothing I did could get me out of their iron grasp. “Sedate him!” The guard on my right hissed. “What? Sedate? No, no, no, no!” I watched in horror as the lead guard came into view with a needle and slowly pressed it into me. Things started fading. All was black.

I woke up momentarily in my bed and RC'd it to be real, but I couldn't stay there for long. It was like something was pulling my mind back into the dream, and it was soon successful. When I was back in the dream, I was just waking up from the sedative. I RC'd again and found myself dreaming, but lucidity again did nothing for me. I was trapped. The dream was totally realistic. Even my vision wasn't perfect, and as in real life, if I closed my eyes, I saw little spots. I was really there in mind and spirit, and now body as well, in the greatest possible sense. I sat up, depressed.

“Welcome back.” I heard a voice say. When I looked up, I saw a middle-aged woman with curly red hair standing there. “I'm Dr. Grace Augustine.” She said.

“Doctor...so you're not being tested too?”

She smirked, and then began to work some computer machinery as she spoke.

“Oh, I'm being tested. We're all being tested, save the big man himself. Here.”

She gave me a cup of water, which I took gratefully.

“Who is the big man?” I asked after a swig.

Grace stopped for a moment before answering.

“That is a very dangerous question. Honestly, no one really knows the answer. No one's ever seen him, not anyone from this level. Some believe he's in disguise undergoing his own tests, but I know better. I may not have met him, but I've spoken with him, and believe me, he's not in this for a science experiment. There's something much deeper at hand. Anyway, for lack of a better title, people around here call him the G-Man.”

“What are these tests? What are they for?”

Dr. Augustine handed me a clipboard with papers on it detailing an organization called the “D.N.A.”

“The DNA is a human research organization of the government.” Grace explained as I skimmed the pages, disappointed that the text wasn't changing like it should in a dream. “It's to...study human behavior; put people in a series of varying living conditions and see how their environment affects them.”

“Well,” I explained, “I'm a Christian; I doubt they'll find my living circumstances to change me in the ways they expect.”

I could tell Dr. Augustine wasn't convinced.

“We'll see about that.” she said as she pulled a nearby lever.

A steel bulkhead door opened behind her.

“This way to your first room.”

I got up and followed her down several dark hallways. The walls and ceiling were made entirely out of pipes, and the floor of a paneled steel square, with metal grating lining the left and right sides. One of the pipes was leaking, spraying steam out into the air and giving the area a very creepy atmosphere. Finally we reached a door.

“And this,” said the doctor, opening the door. “Is your room.”

Inside was a small room that looked very much like a little house's living room. It was smaller than the average hotel room, carpeted bright red and walls left white (and peeling at some points). Basic appliances were there, such as a television and a refrigerator, but they were old, small, and very outdated in appearance. Three people were in there, one a guy a bit taller than me with blonde hair and a thin face, and two girls, one an equally taller red-head and the other a shorter brunette. All of them looked to be about my age. They had the TV going and honestly seemed to be enjoying themselves. Their presence definitely cheered the whole situation and made me think that maybe there was some positive aspect to all of this.

“Food will be brought to you once every day.” Dr. Augustine explained. “You must ration it out for yourselves and save each of the portions in the fridge.”

“That's it?”

“That's it.”

“How long do I have to be here?”

“One month.”

“A month!? You gotta be kiddin' me, you can barely walk around in this place!”

“You have a backyard. Just don't try to go beyond the fence. Now get in there, or I'm going to have trouble with the boss.”

“Alright, alright!”

I walked inside.

“One month.” Said Dr. Augustine as she closed the door behind her.
I just stood there for a moment, silent, not believing the situation I was in. I RC'd again and found myself to still be dreaming, or at least, not in my normal body. Honestly, I don't know where I was then. It was all too real. I took a couple steps inward, and the guy there turned and looked at me.

“Oh, hey! The new guy's here!”

The girls waved and said 'hi' as well. I just sat down on the floor next to the guy, since no chairs were around.

“So how long'a you been here?” I asked.

“Three months.” The guy said, with the girls nodding their agreement with the guessed time.

“Huh, what? I thought we were only supposed to be here one month?”

“No man, that was you!” he said as he put his arm on my shoulder. “You're the one we've been waiting for! The test setup isn't complete without a second male. Here, check the paper.”

He flipped through my clipboard until he came to a page on test 1.

“'This test must be conducted regardless all circumstances with two males and two females. The government reserves the right to keep an incomplete test's subjects in their environments until suitable additions have arrived'.” I read. “This is crazy! I didn't even sign up for this.”

“Nobody does.” The brunette said. “And yet...everyone does. Look at the last page.”

I did, and there was a signature on the dotted line. My signature. I couldn't believe it.

“I...I didn't do this!”

“Everyone who is born signs their signature there from simply being alive.” The guy explained.

“Great. So what are we supposed to do?”

“Didn't Grace tell you?” the redhead chimed in. “Live on rations for a month. It's not much, but we can definitely live on it.”

“Is there really no way out of this?”

To that, no one spoke for a long time. Finally, the brunette broke the silence.

“Only a few have tried. They wanted to climb over the fence. No one knows what happened to them, but they never came back, and the government will act like they never existed if you ask them about it.”

“Outstanding.”

“Well hey,” the guy suggested. “How about we play a game? You know, loosen the tension.”

“Sounds good to me.” The brunette agreed.

“What about you?” The redhead asked, looking at me. “You in?”

I sighed.

“Why not...nothing else to do.”

So we played a game of monopoly, and learned each others names. The blonde guy was Truman, the brunette was Mia, and the redhead was Danielle. I didn't know them, but I don't think I really needed to in order to understand that they had something. They had been living in semi-poverty for three months, and they were the happiest people I'd met in a long time.

The days went on after that. As Grace had said, food was brought in once every day, and we had to ration it out and save what we could in the fridge. Even though there was little, everyone simply learned to think of the other three before themselves. There was no selfishness in that little place, which I think was supposed to be part of the test. To prove one or another of us to be selfish and in the process despise the others. But it never came close to happening. Every day we read the Bible to each other and it was our greatest source of encouragement. We were about as much a family as could be.

Still, I came to feel something special for Mia. I didn't say anything about it to her. I didn't have to. Every time I went to bed I knew she'd be there the next day and that I'd spend every moment with her, so why complicate things? It wasn't like she didn't know. Once, Mia fell terribly sick, to the point of death. We were told that medicine would be exchanged for some of the daily rations, and I volunteered to give mine up so that Mia could get better, which she did. By this point, I was actually beginning to get beyond acceptance of my life and actually enjoy it this way. Every day was...was very pure. It was all about putting others first and living life to the best possible way for the sake of everyone else. I figured out that Truman had feelings for Danielle, and although it would have been very easy, nobody slept together. We kept to our own corners of the room at night and didn't cross any boundaries. It was a kind of life that I would have lived for a long time.

But a month is just a month. Eventually the day came when Dr. Augustine visited our door and told me to say goodbye to my friends. I was very glad at this point that I had said nothing to Mia; it would have made things even harder. I told her goodbye the same way I did the other two; with nothing more than a hug and a word. It was very painful to be torn away from them, but guards were there to assist if I didn't comply of my own free will.

When I was outside and the guards saw I wasn't fighting, they walked away for Dr. Augustine to handle me.

“Why do this?” I asked, frustrated. “Why pull me away from them?”

“Your test was for one month. Boss's orders. I don't make up the rules, kid.”

We walked a bit farther and no one spoke.

“You're going to have a break today.” Grace said. “Back in the room you started in.”

“Why? Why not get the tests over with?”

“I told you I don't make up the rules.”

I went back inside the concrete room and sat on the concrete bed. It was like a prison cell.

“Great. So I'm here. What now? Just sit and take a break?”

“No.”

And then something really weird happened. As Grace said,

“The boss wants to see you.”

My environment faded into total darkness, and Grace morphed into a guard, emitting a blue glow that was painful to look at. Her voice changed to that of the guard as well, giving an eerie feeling about me. Then the guard disintegrated and was taken up into the air. I screamed in fear and tried to run, but I found myself colliding with a wall in the darkness, falling down, knocked out.

Again I woke up for real, but was pulled back into the dream by a force other than me.[/COLOR

When I woke up in the dream, I was in the piped hallway. I took one small step and heard my foot echo all the way down the hallway and around the pitch black corner. Then I heard a gut-wrenching scream, and a dead man limped around the corner. This was no Half-life zombie; this guy was really dead and decaying, and walking towards me. I turned and ran into the darkness of the corner, found a stack of boxes over to the side, and tried to knock it over to block the way. I saw the dead man round the corner, keeping after me. The boxes were too heavy...but then, just in time, they fell, and with another sickening cry, the dead man admitted defeat. I heard him walk away, and then I was left alone, my heart pounding, sure that another of them was going to end up being right behind me, against the wall as well.

“Well, well, well.”

The voice startled me so bad that I thought there was a zombie behind me, but it turned out there wasn't.

“Who are you?” I called out.

“Who am I?” The voice replied, slow, quivering, and dry, sending chills up my spine. “The question is: who are you? That's why we're doing these tests. To discover you. Isn't that right?”

I got his point, but I didn't like it. I remained pinned to the wall, heart racing. The voice laughed wickedly.

“You see? Your eyes are blind. You speak of understanding, but you do not know what you are talking about.”

“What are you talking about?” I finally gathered the courage to say. “What was that last test for? Why did I have to be pulled away? I was living right, and I had the truth.”

“You are looking for truth, and right. But you do not know what you speak of. You may have passed the first test, but I wonder, was it you, or was it the others around you?”

“They were good people. They don't deserve to be imprisoned by you!”

“I didn't put them in prison. You did.”

“I would never do such a thing!”

“Oh,” the voice replied, undaunted. “You don't know what you would do. It's Murphy.”

“Murphy as in Murphy's laws?” I mumbled so quiet that no one could hear it.

“Yes...somehow your pathetic human was the only one to understand. It doesn't matter what you believe, or where you are. Sooner or later, you will give in. It's all...just...a matter...of...time.”

I especially hated the way he said that last part.

“Now, go. Your next test awaitssss.”

Suddenly, the dead man broke through the boxes and ran after me. My legs froze; I couldn't make myself run, I was so afraid. But then, a blue light shone around him, and as I fainted, I could see my environment reverting to the lab with Grace Augustine.

I briefly woke up in real life yet again, but yet again was pulled back asleep.

I awoke in the dream with the doctor waving a light over my eyes and saying my name, trying to get me to come to. When I finally did, I sat up on the concrete bed and RC'd. I tested to be dreaming.

“What the h*ll was that? Get me out of this right now!”

“I can't do that.” Grace said. “Come on. It's time for your next test.”

I was taken outside, which looked a lot like Pandora, honestly, save I wasn't in the midst of trees. The testing facility was all up on a plateau, overlooking a forest, with an active volcano in the far distance. The sky was red and orange from the sunrise. I was led through various gates that required the doctor's authentication, and eventually came to a tree.

“Here you go.” said the doctor. “Test number 2.”

“Huh! A tree? Are you kidding?”

“Nope. For the next month, you are to live here. There's shelter already built for you towards the top.”

“Who's in it?”

“No one. The point of this test is to see how you behave for a month when you are alone. Food rations will come out once a week...”

“What!? Once a week?”

“...but there are weapons in the tree house for you to hunt your own food.”

“Great.”

“Trust me, you'll want to learn how to fight well. You think all the animals are stuck on the ground? Think again. Now go on.”

I looked around me. There were guards at every possible exit and escape. The fences were of latticed barbed wire. It was comply or die.

“Listen...I'm not supposed to tell you this, but after this test you'll get to see Mia again.” Dr. Augustine told me. “One month. That's all you have to endure. Don't kill yourself now!”

I looked at the factory as if it were the embodiment of the G-Man and the voice I had just heard.

“Son of a bit**.”

But I climbed up the tree then—for Mia.

I don't know that I want to or even can go into details about that month. It was horrible. Weather was hot, water was scarce, and so was food. The weapons were all hand-made and very pitiful. I had to sharpen each blade and tweak each arrow for balance before even attempting to use them. Of course the initial rations of food were not good enough for the week, so I had to go hunting. That didn't go so well. I was wary of every creature at first, trying to fight without being hurt, but one strange creature ended that attempt by biting the back of my arm.

“Ow! S**t!”

I then beat down the animal and tore at it with all my might, taking out my anger, temporarily forgetting all about the meat. I pulled it by the tail back to my tree, leaving streaks of dark blood on the dirt and grass. By that time it was night, I was sore, tired, and too hungry to go on. I barely was able to climb back up the tree to sleep. I didn't RC...I didn't want to. I knew where I was, that dream or no dream I couldn't change anything about my situation. I thought about Mia, and cried. Thinking of her made me want to read the Bible, but I could not, because I didn't have one with me, and my mind was too dulled and emotional to recall any memorized verses.

I ended up falling asleep that night with rain pouring through the leaky roof of the wooden tree house. About the only good thing about it was that it cleaned the wound on my arm.

The next day, I got out of the tree to find yesterday's kill completely devoured by other creatures.

“D*m* it!”

I spent the day hunting, and this time I got the meat from the kill right away, made a fire, and tried to cook it as best as possible. It tasted horrible; tough and dry, with no seasoning or spice to it at all. But it was food. I couldn't appreciate it, though. Not doing it for myself. There was no love in that; only hatred. Hatred for the G-Man, hatred for the pesky animals, hatred for my situation, even hatred for myself. By the end of that month, I was as much an animal as the beasts that I killed. My muscles were all huge and solid, my hair long and rough, and my mouth foul. I didn't pray, I didn't think about the Bible...all I thought about was Mia during the day, and the G-Man and the dead man during the night. Many times I was afraid that I had heard the cry of that demon in the night, when it would turn out to be a bird or some other creature.

It was only a month, but it seemed an eternity.

Finally the day came where I climbed back up into the tree house and found Dr. Augustine there. She was examining some pictures of Mia I had drawn on tree bark and hung on the walls.

“Excellent work.” She said.

I glared at her.

“I ought to kill you.”

“I don't. Make. The rules. Besides, you get to see Mia now, because I'm going to take you to her. You should be happy to see me again.”

“I'm happy just to see another living soul again! I've been here alone for far too long. I just wish it didn't have to be you or anyone associated with the d*m* DNA.”

“Tough luck. Come on, buddy.”

I was taken to a car with the DNA logo on the side, put in, and driven to what Grace said was my third and final test environment.

When we got there, I looked out the window to behold a huge mansion.

“And that is your new home.” said the doctor.

“You serious? It's fu**ing huge!”

“And this time, no rations.”

“What!? How am I supposed to live? There are no animals in this place!”

“No rations. You get ten million dollars to spend however you wish; on food, clothes, whatever.”

“You're kidding.”

She shook her head.

“Holy s**t!” I laughed. “Well this will be a breeze after living in the woods for so long.”

“Well good luck, then. Here's the key. The place is yours. After one month here, we're shipping you back home. Make the most of it.”

“Yeah, seriously!” I said, taking the key and dashing out the door.

When I got inside, the place was incredible; three stories high and hundreds of rooms on each floor. There was a fountain in the middle of the entrance area, and huge stair cases on both sides. Mia was there, and saw me come in from the top of one of the stair cases. She called out my name, and I called out hers, and we ran to meet each other.

“What happened to you!?” she asked. “You're filthy! And your clothes...they're all torn up!”

“They made me live out in a tree house for the past month! A d*m* tree house! Rations came only once a week; I had to hunt for the rest.”

“You poor thing! Come on, let's get you to the shower. There's clothes and everything you need up in the master bedroom.”

She led me upstairs and to the room she spoke of. It was an amazing place; the bed was big enough for someone 9 feet tall to comfortably fit in, and the accommodations in the bathroom were just as extravagant. Mia was just about to leave so I could get cleaned up, but I turned and put her hands in mine before she could.

“I'm afraid that if I let you go I'll never see you again.” I said.

She smiled.

“I'll wait right outside. Not a step farther away.”

“Thank you.”

It was great to get cleaned up after a month of filthiness. After a shower in the bathtub with jets and floor lamps, I trimmed my hair and shaved in front of a fifty-foot mirror. I never could get over the fact that was a multimillionaire and this was my new home for the next month. I didn't care, though. I knew how to live without money at all. It was Mia that I cared about.

When I went into the bedroom to get dressed, I noticed a PDA on the bed. It hadn't been there before. I picked out an outfit and tried to ignore the device...but somehow it grabbed my attention. I touched the screen, and it turned on. A man with a gnarled, wrinkled face wearing a suit appeared on the screen. He was hideous. I didn't even need to ask to know he was the G-Man.

“You son of a bit**! What do you want with me?”

“Careful. Don't forget who gave you all this, and Mia.” He said in his usual, slow and devious manner.

“Who the h*ll are you, really?”

He ignored me.

“I'm here to tell you about this device. This is what you will use this month to do everything.”

“Like what? Why would I use s**t that you and your half-a**ed guards sneaked into this place?”

“You will use it to make purchases.” He continued, undaunted.

The screen changed to illustrate what he was talking about.

“I have made hundreds of bookmarks for you. Web stores, magazines, everything is all right here for you at the touch of a button. There's even vast adult web content available at low prices.”

“I'm not interested in adult web content.”

“We shall see.”

And with that, he was gone. Mia knocked on the door.

“Is someone in there with you?”

I turned to look at the door.

“Oh. No! No, just talking to myself.”

When I looked back down at the device, the G-Man had made it automatically switch to one of those bookmarked adult web pages.

“D*m* it!”

I tapped the home button on the PDA and shoved it into my pocket. Then I opened the door for Mia.

There was something about the way she turned to look at me that made her stunningly beautiful in the red dress she was in.

“Mia...there's something I have—I need—to tell you.”

“You can tell me anything.”

“Mia...” I took her hands in mine again. “I love you.”

I saw a tear form in the corner of her eye, and then she threw her arms around me.

“I thought I'd never get the chance to hear you say it!”

Things went very well the rest of that day. Mia and I went exploring the huge house, uninterrupted by anyone else. Since many rooms were empty, we also did some shopping. Well, I did, anyway. I told Mia I would order things; I didn't show her just how. See, I couldn't delete the bookmarks on the device, and I didn't want Mia to find them and think that I had put them there. So a 70-inch plasma screen TV, a water slide for the backyard pool, paintings by famous artists, you name it, all came in without Mia ever knowing just how I was ordering.

It would have been a good month, except for the fact that Mia and I got so caught up in riches that we left behind the Bible and God and lived for ourselves. We couldn't leave our estate because guards would stop us, so marriage wasn't an option, and therefore, rather than make the right choices, we simply started sleeping together. But our love was quickly turning to selfishness, and so more and more those bookmarks became a temptation for me.

Eventually, I resisted no more. I thought Mia was on the other side of the mansion, so I pulled out the device and opened the first bookmark in the list. Not ten minutes later, Mia came back and found me there with the device. And yes, she did think I had put the bookmarks there. But that hardly mattered now; I had given into them, which was a far worse deed.

In the middle of our argument over the issue, blue lights shone from us both, and we were taken to the cement place I had first arrived at. Grace wasn't there, the G-Man wasn't there, but we could hear his voice.

“You claimed to love this woman, but look at what you did!” His spine-chilling voice shouted.

Then we were transported back to the first test room.

“Remember what you were? Look at yourself now!”

This time, only I had the blue light. Mia grabbed for me.

“Mia! Don't!”

She didn't have time. I was transported to the dark hallway with the pipes, and I was utterly alone, standing beneath the only light in the entire place. Behind me I heard the cry of the dead man again, but when he rounded the corner, I saw not just him, but an army of dead men behind him.

I swore and ran away. They advanced behind me, faster and faster. I took twists and turns down the hallway, but at one point I had three options. Back, left, or right. Behind me was darkness and dead men, so I turned left. To my horror, more dead men swarmed in on that side of me as well. I screamed and ran, the decaying, limping bodies crying out after me.

I began to realize as I ran that even the bright moments had been deception the past three months. It was all a trick, all a lie, and I had given into it all. I had been weak and easily decieved, I had become the very thing I hated, and now I was about to be destroyed by the very thing I feared most.

I was lucid, but I couldn't wake up, I couldn't fight, I couldn't flee. The worst fear I've ever had set in as I realized that as far as reality was concerned, this was real, and there was no escaping it.

There was one last corner for me to go around, but when I did, the army of dead men was already there. I was trapped this time. Quickly, I searched for more boxes, and found them, but knocking them over did no good. Hundreds of zombies were on both sides of me this time, and they were very strong. I held up the walls with my own hands and feet, but I knew I was only prolonging the inevitable. I couldn't hold them off forever, and there was nowhere else to go. They reached their decaying hands through holes in between boxes and clawed desperately at me in the darkness.

Cusses and swears came from my mouth, and then the G-Man joined in the racket with his wicked laughter.

“You wanted to find right and truth.” He said, still slowly, his voice still quivering, and chilling as ever. “Well, you found it. Or should I say...you found them.”

“What!? These are you. You!”

“No, these are you.”

I finally began to understand, but I didn't want to.

“No, no, no, no!” I cried.

“Yeessss.” The G-Man hissed. “Every one of them is a work of yours; a tragedy. Weren't you a Christian? Then look around you.”

The armies of dead men began to cry louder and beat harder against the walls of boxes.

“You see? All there is...is tragedy. So much for Christianity.”

“This can't be right. This can't be true. This isn't. It isn't!” I tried to convince myself, and control the dream. It was no use. I was still pinned, growing weaker by the moment.

That speech seemed to crush everything about me; like the past three months had all been a sick game played just to prove to me that I would give into temptation if put in the wrong environments for enough time.

Suddenly the pressure against the boxes eased, and the zombies were gone...or so I thought.

A moment later, their faces came into view by the thousands, all behind one gnarled and twisted face of an old man that appeared right in front of me.

“Tragedy is all that is, and that is what makes it right. It's Murphy. It's all...just...a matter...of...time.”

With that, the G-Man snapped his fingers, and all was snuffed out in darkness. I wasn't in body then, but spectating, and I zoomed out and saw a briefcase being closed over my clipboard of papers. When it shut, the ten stars on the DNA symbol lit up.

“We have his DNA now. I just hope it was worth doing to the poor fellow.” A rather heavy government worker said as he picked it up.

The G-Man was sitting behind a desk, which I saw as things continued to zoom out.

“Trust me. All of it is in that DNA. Right and wrong, good and evil...it's all pointless and meaningless...a fabrication of fragile, disgusting humanity. With this DNA, we have the ability to decide for ourselves what is good, and what is evil.”

“You better be right.”


And then I woke up with a start. I might need to illustrate this a bit, since just reading it is not nearly as scary. I've never felt so scared, so betrayed, so deceived...I became a wicked, wicked person, not all that unlike who I really am, just less bridled. It's a very sobering story, especially since the G-Man's face and that line “It's Murphy. It's all...just...a matter...of...time” are not unfamiliar to me. I saw them both early on as a little kid. I called the G-Man “the gray man who stands next to my bed and brings dreams to me.” And he said that line more than once before.

If there's not something of the devil involved in all this, I don't know where it came from...

EDIT: A couple illustrations can be found here. I didn't spend too long on them, but the first one is pretty accurate, and the second one is exactly right.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I think my new reality check is working! The great thing is, I should be able to continue to do it every day, even on busy weekends, so hopefully a day without RCs won't have a chance to mess me up anymore!

As you may have guessed, that means I went lucid again last night. And I mean REALLY lucid this time. I've never had a clearer LD before. And even though I didn't remember to go to Pandora like I originally set out to do, it was pretty freaking awesome. I honestly didn't ever want to wake up from it

I'm not exactly sure how I went lucid. The first thing I remember was being lucid, so perhaps I realized I was dreaming from the very beginning. I was in the world of the Matrix, right down to the atmosphere being dark and having the sunglasses and black clothes on.

I found myself in a storage room at the basement level of some building. Currently nothing was happening, so I decided to take the time to really clear up the dream. I walked around and touched everything I saw, enjoying actually having the right sensation for each texture. But eventually I came across a rusted pipe in the wall that felt smooth. "That's not right..." I thought. So I concentrated on what rusty metal should feel like, and gradually the proper sensation came to me. When that was done I rubbed my hands. "I really want this to last a while. Heck, I hope I never wake up!" By now, the dream was as clear as real life...clearer, even. I could forget that I even had a body elsewhere and just live as if this was life. But then I stopped myself. "If I forget this is a dream, I won't be lucid anymore. So I still need to remember that...but how?" Then it hit me. I pinched my nose and breathed in without problem. "Now I know." I said to myself, aloud this time.

Now it was time to have some fun. Being the Matrix, I just had to try out a few moves. Flips, kicks...I could do it all. If it felt like I wasn't going to land right, I'd just suspend myself in the air for a half-second so that I could regain my footing. I intentionally didn't just fly, since that would eliminate all challenge and make things much less enjoyable.

Playtime was over pretty soon, though. Trinity walked up to me from behind a stack of boxes. I didn't think about it at the time, but it was incredible how realistic she was. Not cartoony at all like regular dreams make people. There was seriously no visual difference between seeing her in the dream and seeing her in the second movie. She was in the shiny biker outfit. "Someone's hacking the Matrix," she said. "We have to find him quick. He's causing all sorts of trouble, and who knows what he'll do if he's left to run rampant." We quickly found out. Viperwolves appeared all around us right then. Why this didn't remind me that I was intending to go to Pandora I don't know. Trinity held up her fists and got into a ready position, but I held up a hand in her direction and said, "Hold on, I got this." Then I reached out with my other hand and used telekinesis on the viperwolf nearest to me. It whined in pain as I held it suspended in air, slowly crushing it into a ball. When it gave in and stopped trying to fight, I threw it across the room and into a wooden rail. It smashed right through the wood, breaking the rail and killing the viperwolf. Trinity sharply turned her head towards me as I did the same towards her. We nodded to each other, and then she ran off to drive the viperwolves in my direction, and as they came, I promptly picked them up with a thought and smashed them onto the concrete floor, into the ceiling, or anything else that looked like it would do them damage. Most of the time I only tried to grab one at a time, but for a final, climactic blow, I picked up about five of them at once, crushed them, and then threw them off to the side.

After a few moments of waiting to see if any more would come, I suddenly was drawn out of myself and flown around outside like an invisible security camera. I was 'decoding the Matrix'. Soon, as I was pulled back into my dream body, I nearly fell down from the transition. Trinity saw it, and was worried. "What happened?" She asked, rushing over to me. "I...I saw the hacker." I regained my balance. "He's up three stories. Door to the fire escape. Go!"

We made it outside and looked at the fire escape, but pretty soon a problem became evident to us both. Trinity was the first to speak it out loud. "You say he's coming out that door?" I nodded. "He'll see us and turn around unless we get up there really quick." "You know what, Trinity? You're right." So I ran up to the wall and then began running right up the side of the building. I reached the top and then did a flip off of it, landing right on my feet outside the door, just as it began to open. Standing there was a bald man with a scruffy goatee, dirty clothes, and a gun. He took his shot and sent a bullet right through my gut, but I healed myself instantly, so there was hardly even any blood loss. So next the hacker tried to punch me, but with both attempts I reached up and deflected his blows. "I know jujitsu." I said, intentionally copying Neo's line. It was an all-out fight after that, going back inside the top floor of the building, but unfortunately, this is where my dream recall starts to fade. No doubt about it, I was still lucid, and the fight was long, intense, and incredible, just like you'd expect from a Matrix fight. I remember running off walls and doing some crazy awesome kicks, but of course it wasn't an immediate victory for me. I was hurt a couple times, and being such a vivid dream, it really did hurt. I believe it all ended when I grabbed the guy and flew him back outside, smashing down the door in the process, and then flying down into the ground and crushing him into the concrete. Soon after that, I woke up.

Honestly, I'm glad I didn't go to Pandora as I had planned to. It's probably not as exciting to read about, but it sure was an incredible experience going through it!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, that was a weird experience...last night, I mean.

The first dream I had, I went lucid. I didn't have time to do anything, though, because there was a man standing in front of me. "I am The Guardian, and The Guide." He said. I tried moving...and found myself unable to. "Listen to me, because this is very important: you will not be able to dream again tonight. If you follow my instruction, there is a chance you will, but you have to do everything perfectly." He then went on with his instruction, but being unable to move, I gradually lost lucidity and eventuallywoke up.

Weird, weird experience. Especially because...he was right! After that, I couldn't enter SP for long enough to dream. Whether I went into it intentionally or unintentionally, the SP would simply break after a few moments, and I could never hold on to any of the dreams that began to form . I couldn't even remember what the guy had told me to do in order to successfully dream. When it reached 6:00 or so, I managed to dream, but it was another dumb one, and not lucid.

I applied for a job at a cookie dough factory. I didn't get the job, but all of my would-be co-workers really wanted me to get it. This one odd girl especially wouldn't give up on me. She said it was just because I didn't know baking well enough, and that if I created an original recipe to sell to the company, they'd hire me in no time. With her minor assistance, then, I did just that (yep, right in the factory...no one told the manager I was there). It was late in the day by that point, so she told me that she'd keep the first batch of the new recipe in a safe place so I could show it to the manager the next day. That sounded fine to me, but when the next day came, I arrived at the factory to find everyone cheering on this odd girl for her new recipe...which was actually mine! "Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" I said to myself as I turned and left.

I don't think I'll ever understand how some of my dreams can be super-awesome and some can be super-stupid...like that one...

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Two lucids again last night, and I remembered to remain bodily still and mentally calm long enough to recall them!

Dream 1: I was talking with a small group of friends (including a girl who shall remain nameless) when I did my reality checks and found myself to be dreaming. Suddenly that impulse to go to Pandora returned, but it was instantly counteracted by a desire to remain with this girl in particular. "I'm really sorry," I said to her, interrupting the conversation. "I really have to leave." But then I had an idea. "But...wait a second! You can come with me!" "Really?" She asked, puzzled. "Where to?" "Come here and just hold on to me." She did, so I picked her up and flew right out of that building, right through the roof, out into the world. She smiled and laughed as I soared through the air, holding on to her the whole time. It felt so real it was incredible. Every sense save taste was fully employed. I could feel the wind on us and see it blowing her hair, I could hear her laughter, see her smile...it was...well, incredible, as I said. When I saw how much she enjoyed just flying around, I totally lost my desire to leave her and go to Pandora, so we went everywhere either of us could think of, the whole time building up a sort of romantic feeling. Eventually, after flying over rushing seas, forests full of trees, mountains, plains, and every other beautiful scene on earth, that feeling reached such a climax that we couldn't hold back any longer. So I turned and looked at her, and she at me, and right there, over the earth, late at night, in the air, below the stars, we kissed. And oh boy did that ever feel real and amazing! I was suddenly filled with such a passion that I shot straight up out of the earth and deep into space. I showed her the moon, nebulae, stars, the whole way feeling her head pressed against mine. If ever there was a dream that I did not want to wake up from, this was it, but unfortunately, all dreams must come to an end, and so I soon woke up. How I stayed calm long enough to recall it all I don't know, but I sure am glad I did!

Dream 2: I'm not sure where I went lucid in this one, but I was lucid, and that girl was nowhere to be found. Rather than look for her, I decided that I would go to Pandora again. However, my lucidity was not as strong this time, so attempting to teleport there failed. So I tried flying. After all, Pandora is part of the Alpha Centauri system which is visible off the earth's southern hemisphere, right? So all I really had to do was fly there. I shot out into space as fast as I could, flying superman style, my hands out in front of me. It was pretty amazing, because I could see light reflecting off of my arms in incredible realism. However, before I could reach Pandora, I came across a Star Destroyer and a Rebel frigate, among hundreds of smaller star fighters that were all engaged in intense combat. "Well I can end this before going to Pandora!" I thought. Dodging tie fighters, I flew right up to the Star Destroyer and landed on the nose of it. A burning tie crashed onto the destroyer right next to me, causing the metal to dent and burn, all reflecting light as if fully real. It also knocked me down. But I got up and kept moving forward. Eventually I found what I was looking for: empty escape pod tubes. The weird thing was that as I went down the tubes, it turned out they were very long and windy. "These aren't escape pod tubes..." But I soon found out what they were. Flames shot through the tunnels, coming up after me. Of course I wasn't afraid, because being lucid meant that I was aware that none of what I was seeing existed. The fire swirled all around me and shot out of the tubes in the form of a laser, leaving me totally unharmed. I had a moment of third person, seeing the laser destroy multiple rebel starfighters and do considerable damage to the frigate as well. When I returned to myself, I decided that was enough. I gripped the sides of the tubes, took a deep breath, and then ripped the destroyer in half. That finished the fight, but unfortunately also caused me to lose lucidity. I have only faint ideas of what happened after that, but I never made it to Pandora

If only I had rubbed hands before all of that...it was an amazingly clear dream; all that was missing was full control, which I could have had if lucidity were just a bit more intense. I probably could have made it out of that battle still lucid...oh well.

I had a third dream, but it was non-lucid. I also don't remember a ton about it.

Dream 3: Somehow, I had learned in an old castle that I had family ties to King Arthur, and that the whole King Arthur myth was not a myth, and that the magical sword Excalibur was a rightful part of my family inheritance. All that I had to do was find it, and other great treasures, in the castle. Of course with a fortune like that, there was a villain trying to find it first and pose as a descendant himself. He nearly did, too, but eventually I beat him in a sword fight and took Excalibur as my own.

All in all, a decent night of dreaming. I'm starting to feel good about consistent DILDing!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

FINALLY I WENT LUCID AGAIN!

TWICE!!!

Shout out to Naiya...I totally owe this one to you, since everything I did to go lucid was from your guide!

Ok, so here are the dreams. Not only were they lucid, but they were the most fascinating I've ever had for other respects, too. Unfortunately I forgot to try the TotM because I was too preoccupied with creating an entire world, but surely now that it's constructed in my mind I'll be able to just go there again without having to start from scratch, and I can do the TotM then.

Dream 1: I found myself in a lot of pain. I didn't know why, at first. I was going around some large facility, people everywhere, not understanding why it felt so weird when my feet hit the floor, or when my sleeves brushed up against my arms. But finally, for some reason everyone had to sit on the floor. When I did, I saw that my body was covered with very deep cuts covered by blackened skin. They looked awful; like I'd been through battle or something. There was no blood, though, interestingly. Suddenly there was a bottle of lotion next to me, and I started to put it on with the hopes of it at least easing the pain while we had to sit down. I simply loaded several of the cuts with lotion so that it was filled to the skin level...at least it sort of made me look whole again. Didn't help the pain, though...it actually stung like nothing else! Something happened then that I can't remember, but it made me look up, and then back down again. When I saw myself again, the cuts had been filled in, not with lotion, but with skin, and the pain was gone from those places! Of course I then did the same thing to the rest of the cuts, and before long, the pain was gone and so were the cuts! Even though I was glad, I was having this weird feeling...like something wasn't exactly right.

I found myself in a bathroom then, putting the lotion bottle back in its place. It was then that I realized what that feeling was, and the impulse to reality check broke through. The first one (asking "what was the last thing I did?") failed; I answered mentally not with "I went to bed" but with all the things I had done in the dream. The second one (asking "how did I get here?") puzzled me a bit, but still didn't make me lucid. The third one (asking "what makes me think this is real) ultimately succeeded, because it prompted me to do other reality checks, like pinching my nose, which made me go lucid!

"What!?" I shouted. There was genuine surprise in the words. I totally did NOT expect to discover that I was dreaming. But I knew for certain that I was, now. "Finally I won't be wasting time in my dreams! See you later!" I said to my reflection in the mirror. I turned to the bathroom door and walked out, thinking "Pandora" in my mind. But where I went was far from Pandora, and it is possibly the most fascinating thing I've ever experienced in a dream.

I was in a colorless room; the walls, floor, and ceiling were all simply shades of dull gray. Hundreds of doors lined every wall of the seemingly endless room. There was no light source in the room, yet it was not dark. People were everywhere...real people. Not one fictional character, not even a real person who was misrepresented in bodily form. But they were, from what I could tell, all 'bluepills', all dreaming without being lucid. Somehow I knew they were dreaming, though. As I went around the room, I saw the dreams of numerous people going on, in the many corners or alcoves that were available. Each place had a little set up as if for a school play, only it was what was making up each person's dream. Everyone was so dream-dead, they never once got the chance to turn around and see the truth about where they were. "Ok, time to go to Pandora." I said, after concluding that this was definitely NOT the place I had intended to go. "When I turn around, I'll be in Pandora." I said. But it didn't work. Suddenly I saw someone come tearing out of the crowd of people and rush for a door. They were moving too fast for me to see who they were. But I could move fast too, and so I got to the door and put my fingers between it and the frame as it closed. Just barely kept it open, too. "Ok. On the other side of this door is Pandora." I opened the door, but what I found was not Pandora, but this guy who had run through the door creating his own world, vastly different than anything from Avatar. "I must need to find my own door." But I didn't want anyone to follow me, so it was a while before I found a suitable door to use, without people crowding all around it. "On the other side of this door is Pandora." I opened it then, and found my words to be true. I shut the door behind me as fast as I could, but a couple of my friends made it through. Since they were friends I didn't mind; but I wasn't going to let bluepills into my Pandora. "Ok guys, you need to go lucid." I said, stopping them. "What do you mean?" They asked. One of them rolled his eyes and went back through the door. The other one, Josh, stayed behind. "You're in a dream. You need to be aware of that fact. Here. Pinch your nose and try to breath in. If this is a dream, you'll be able to do it. If it's not a dream, you won't." Josh tried it, and his eyes lit up. "Woah! I'm...what did you call it? Lucid?" "Yeah, you got it!" Josh cheered and ran off. I just laughed and went about my business.

I was definitely in Pandora, but as I ran up to the Hometree, I was disappointed to find only the stump left behind. Smoke rose from the charred vegetation on the ground. It looked as if the climactic battle had taken place there. At first I tried passively changing that. I turned my back to the tree and said, "when I turn around, everything's going to be good again; there will be thousands of trees, and amazing plants, and everything from the Pandora that I know!" But it didn't quite work out like that. The smoke was gone, but Hometree still was a stump, and though there were trees, they were not even close to the right kind. I gave up on that and just tried controlling it. I held out my hand. "Trees!" I said, and trees rose up from the ground. "Flowers!" And flowers bloomed on all the trees, growing their vines around the trunks instantly. "Vegetation!" And all the cool Pandora plants that I don't know the names of rose up from the ground where they belonged. In this process, I also noticed that Hometree had become whole again. Knowing it had been a workout, I rubbed my hands together to bring back full clarity. "Well that's more like it! Now to find Neytiri." I took a step forward and imagined myself turning instantly into a Na'vi, particularly the Na'vi that I had photoshopped myself to be IRL. As I passed by a pool of water, I looked at my reflection, and saw that my face matched that picture perfectly! I was fully Na'vi, but it didn't remain so for long. After searching for Neytiri for a few minutes and not finding her to be where I expected, the dream faded, and with it faded my Na'vi body. Soon, I woke up.

That dream has so much possible shared content it's unbelievable. Do all dreams really take place in that room, and if we could only go lucid enough to look away, we'd see where we truly were? And I had very little dream control there...I couldn't usurp the dreams of others, even those who went through the doors. And did my friend really go lucid when I told him to, or was he just a DC who did what I expected? Of course...why then would my other friend have left, when I expected him to do the same as Josh? I'll have to ask a few people about their dreams and see if any of what I saw sounds familiar to them.

Dream 2: I was walking through a row of bunkbeds in a dark room, when again that urge to reality check came to me. I was short of time, so I just pinched my nose, but was surprised when I was able to breath in. "What? Really?" I tried it again, and was thrilled to realize that I was indeed dreaming again! I wasted no time; I teleported myself right back to Pandora, and was happy to find it exactly as I'd left it. "Now to find Neytiri!" At first I tried doing passive control again, but that resulted in a 1-foot tall version of Neytiri! "You've got to be kidding me!" I tried just to make her bigger, but that turned her into a stack of boxes. "This isn't going so well...time for force control!" But then, rather than create Neytiri, I created an entire horde of Na'vi! They started running all over the place and doing their daily stuff, which was great, but I still hadn't succeeded. So I started looking around, and finally I saw her! Her name appeared above her head, and things sort of went non-lucid again. I think the nametag made me think too much like a video game, and suddenly I found myself in an armored human vehicle with a turret mounted on the back. They were shooting at the Na'vi. "No! Stop!" I shouted, beating the soldiers with whatever strength I had. I killed the driver, which effectively let the Na'vi get ahead, but I couldn't take out the gunners before one of them knocked me on the head and put me unconscious...also waking me up.

I sure hope the Na'vi were ok... I fully intend to go back there very soon. I guess if any of them are hurt I can just patch them up with lotion, since apparently that heals everything

Dream 3: I lost my video camera. When, where, how, I don't know, but I lost it. And I knew I had lost it. I was on a tram going on a tour through the universe, and asking everyone if they knew where my camera was. No one did. When we reached Pandora, I wanted to either cry or kill whoever made me lose my camera; I couldn't decide which. "We're in Pandora and I can't even get a video of it! This is awful!" I kept going around, but no luck finding the camera. The DC's weren't very helpful, since none of them were people IRL. One of them kept taunting me and saying that my camera was stolen, and I was right there when it happened, and yet I didn't do anything about it. That just made me angry.

I don't know when exactly I woke up, but eventually I did. Thank goodness...dumb non-lucid dreams...

Other than the non-lucid junk at the end, this was the best night I've ever had! Dream control was better than ever (even though there's room for improvement), clarity was fantastic, and it was in Pandora! I'm definitely going to keep on reality checking...let's do this again every night!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I'm not sure if I MILDed or accidentally WILDed, but either way, it gave me an awesome lucid dream last night! The best I've had yet, by far! The only thing I'd say was disappointing about it was that for some reason I was pretty near-sighted in the dream...I couldn't see anything in the distance, just a solid color that the terrain and all would blend into. I probably should have slowed down a bit and tried to fix that...I'm sure rubbing hands or spinning would have done the trick.

Oh well, here's what happened!

I went to bed a half-hour early so that I wouldn't feel like I was losing sleep if I spent a while relaxing, repeating mantras, and visualizing. I did all that, but as half-expected, was not able to pull it off at the beginning of the night. I woke up at about 2:30, however, and just repeated the whole process. I felt the onset of sleep paralysis, which made me want to swallow, but I just started breathing through my nose with my mouth open and was able to swallow and ignore it without hurting my progress any. As soon as I reached the visualization step of MILD, I started seeing a bunch of flashing lights, and then it was just one pulsating light that seemed to fly around. I just followed it, and it was like it led me out of my body and into my dream body. Within moments, I was in bed, looking out the window, at the moon. It was only another few moments before I realized something. "Wait a second..." I thought. "I can't see the moon out my window! This must be a dream!" I got out of bed and walked over to the window. I was determined to fly this time. "I know that I left the window locked...but it doesn't exist!" I reached a single finger down and opened up the window as if it weighed nothing. Same with the screened pane. Then I leaned out and flew off! I had absolutely no struggles, knowing that gravity was nonexistent and that it was just like walking in a dream; the only reason I moved anywhere was simply because I believed I would. Now the only question was...where should I fly to? "The moon!" it came to me, almost instantly. "Just like Neo..." I thought, aligning myself towards the moon and shooting off at a ridiculous speed. I arrived at the moon within a couple seconds. I flew low to the surface and looked at the craters and put my hand in the cold, gray sand. But then I realized something else...that was pretty much all there was to do on the moon. So I flew back home the same way, shooting through space and reaching land in about 2 seconds. I didn't target any specific place in the world; anywhere was fine with me. By chance, I ended up in a city, and I landed on the first building I felt compelled to. There was a roof access door that led directly to a deserted office level. On the walls were some black and white pictures of businessmen that I didn't recognize...probably employees of the month or something. "Ok," I thought. "there's always this list of things I want to do in a lucid dream, and now that I'm here, I can't think of anything else to do! Let's see...oh! I know. This ought to be fun! I'm going to go on a date..." I began to walk down a short hallway. "...with the girl around the corner." As I rounded the corner, I saw this really pretty girl standing there. Unfortunately, I didn't just accept that fact and move on. "I did it...I really did it!" Now you have to understand the significance of this action. I had been partially successful with flying before, and had figured out how to do that one pretty certainly, just never had a chance to actually do it until now. So it didn't surprise me to have success at that. But every attempt at this kind of dream control where I try to make things appear around the corner had previously failed. The thing about lucid dreaming by MILD is that even though I was aware that I was dreaming, I wasn't thinking 100% logically. Rather than accept success and move on like I would have thought to do if I was thinking fully clearly, I once again had a little lucid-dreaming-success party that very quickly began to wake me up. I felt the dream fading out too late, though, so my immediate attempts to rub hands didn't work. I should have spun around, too, but it didn't cross my mind at the time.

And thus the dream ended. Still, I believe this was the longest lucid dream I've had yet, and I exercised dream control unlike I've ever been able to do before. Not exactly sure what to label this one as in my sig, since it was kind of a WILD-MILD-DILD, but since I was shooting for MILD I guess that's what the label will be.

Bottom line is, I had another lucid dream!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

The dry spell is broken!!!

Yesterday I made sure to reality check all day long, and before bed I told myself a million times "I WILL lucid dream!" and "I WILL reality check!" but I didn't feel very good about it. I mean, in past dreams, I've though in the dream, "I should probably reality check...nah, I'm sure this is real." I needed something more; a sure dream sign I could use to force myself to reality check. Then it hit me, and I repeated to myself a million times, "The moment my eyes open, or I realize that they are opened, I WILL reality check!" Then I unintentionally practiced it myself. I opened my eyes (by mistake), and followed through with my saying. I felt good about it, and soon was asleep.

My dream began quite long, I was in a place that looked a lot like 'the real world' from The Matrix. Unfortunately, I think it went too long, eating up all the REM that would better have been lucid. I'm not sure what happened in this place, but I had a mission, and I remember someone handing me a device like a large thermometer, only it was not for measuring the temperature. I walked through a doorway and suddenly found myself in my room. "Oh! My eyes are open. I need to reality check." I was sure all of this was real, but I pinched my nose, breathed in, and was shocked to find that I was dreaming! "Yes! I'm lucid!" I said, throwing aside the device. This time I got down to business, without wasting any time celebrating. I tried to fly. Initially I did little more than hover, but then, remembering the Matrix theme to my dream, I told myself, "There is no spoon," reminding myself that none of this actually existed, and I could affect it how I wished. That got me up to the ceiling, but of course that wasn't good enough for me. I looked out the window, and decided I would go right through it. "There is no spoon." I flew right for it, preparing to fly right outside, and...SMACK! I hit the window and was knocked to the ground. It kind of hurt. But I got back up and tried again...slowly. I just stuck out my thumb and pressed against the cold pane of glass. "There is no spoon." Slowly, as I convinced myself of the window's non-existence, my thumb pressed through the glass, until I could reach my entire hand through without a problem. I watched as the glass in the window rippled like water around my arm. Then I pulled my hand out, and jumped through the window, flying as I had originally intended. Unfortunately, I never once stabilized the dream, my REM was running low, and I flew too fast. Therefore, I no more than glimpsed the outside before I woke up, reality checked, and found it to be real.

Although it was a short lucid, it was very significant, seeing it broke my dry spell and I made headway in getting around my mind's strict laws of physics without forcing control!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I determined to WILD. Absolutely determined. I set my alarm in case of failure on the first try, set aside any care for getting any sleep, and got in bed.

First WILD attempt (midnight): Reached full SP by doing the counting method, but drifted off to sleep rather than remain conscious. My dad (who works for the government) apparently stood against everyone else in a major decision. And now they were trying to put him away for it. So he came home one day, told us to pack up whatever we could in the back of our car, and then leave as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, just when we were about done packing, I noticed a camera in our garage door code box. "Wait!" I shouted to someone who was about to walk right by it. I was too late. I ducked behind the car as I heard the camera activate an alarm and a hidden turret, which promptly destroyed whoever it was that walked by. We wasted no more time, but jumped in the car and pulled off, leaving everything else behind. It went alright at first, but eventually the police came after us, and we had to split up. I'm not sure where we got the second car from, but we suddenly had two, so we took separate ways with the hopes of spreading the cops thin and making it possible for us to escape.

Second WILD attempt (5:21am): Woke up to my alarm at 5:21am and tried to WBTB WILD. Again, soon after hitting full SP, I lost consciousness and fell asleep. This time I was in a dream similar to my first WILD experience. I jumped from place to place without trying to, first playing Halo 3 with a friend at his house, then chatting on facebook with another friend on a laptop in my kitchen, and then to my bed. False awakening...and it was all so real I never once realized I was dreaming, nor did I think to reality check. I would have noticed if something was out of order, but I had 10 normally-formed fingers that stayed that way, there were no flying turtles or anything like that. Each time I jumped through space and time, I simply accepted the new location as my present state of existence and didn't give it a thought. Eventually, though, I did figure out one abnormality...I could still hear my friend talking about our game of Halo 3, even though I'd left that far behind! I woke up for real when I realized that, and found myself still in full SP!

Third WILD attempt (time unknown): Rather than break it by opening my eyes or trying to move, I just used my consciousness to finish off a WILD, and sure enough, within moments, I felt earthquake-like tremors in my bed that then seemed to rip me out of my body and into another, as I shot towards a light in the darkness at a magnificent speed. The force of being shot towards the light was so strong my arms were pinned to my sides. "It's working! I'm doing it!" I thought. I don't know if that killed the dream or what, but when I hit the light, I wasn't put into a dream scene with my dream body, but just stuck into a bodiless darkness. I tried to form a dream scene, but none came. Probably too quickly, I gave up, and woke myself up.

Fourth WILD attempt (7:38am): Encouraged from being so close, I tried again, but this time couldn't even reach SP. I concluded that there was no more use in trying; REM was done for the night and there was just no way I was going to succeed at this point.

But I got REALLY close that time! Sooner or later I've just GOT to succeed at WILDing again!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I think my alarm is broken. It didn't wake me up again last night, and I made sure to have it somewhere where I would hear it. There's no way I could sleep through THAT alarm twice...it's just too loud.

Since there was no WBTB again, and I've been heavily relying on it, there was also no real LD. I did have a continuous dream that seemed to last all night, but I lost most of it the moment I woke up.

I went to school one day, feeling very confident. I recall having been there before and feeling it was all intimidating and unfamiliar, but something was different about me this time. This time I knew that I could control everything, so I was not afraid of anything or anyone. It wasn't really lucidity, though, since I didn't fully know I was dreaming. I just knew I could control the dream. As I walked to class, I passed a group of girls who were chatting by some lockers. One of them glanced at me as I walked by, and her face caught my eye. It was Claire Bennet (from the Heroes TV show, for those of you who don't know). "Oh cool, so I'm not the only one here with powers." I thought. Rather than be in awe at Claire's ability like everyone else, I just said "Hey, Claire" as I passed by, as if she were an old friend. I could hear the other girls laugh, then say, "Does he know what you can do?" Puzzled, Claire replied, "I don't know...there's something different about him. Something...special." I went into class and sat down. The room was empty other than me. Only a few moments later the other students started coming in. Claire grabbed a seat next to me and leaned over. "Hey," she said. "Can we talk at lunch?" "Sure." Next thing I remember we were talking at lunch. I can't remember what exactly we said, but the basic idea of it was that Claire asked if I had any special 'ability' and I told her that I knew what she could do and that I too could do some special things. We both thought it was nice to have someone the same age that could understand what it was like to be 'special'. Back in class, all of a sudden, alarms went off, government agents burst into the building, searching for something. Claire pulled me out of my chair and down low, in the corner of the room. "Was anyone listening to us talk at lunch?" She asked. "I don't know..." suddenly it was like I was seeing lunch again, only from an omniscient perspective. I looked around and saw someone watching us and listening from a short distance. "Yes!" I said. "I just saw him." "They're coming for us! You have to do something!" "Do? Like what?" "Anything!" She pleaded. "You can control whatever you want to! You have to do something before they find us here!" Just then, the SWAT-like agents burst into our classroom. By impulse, I teleported Claire and myself out of there, to some other place that I don't remember.

I lost even partial lucidity then, and went back to just normal dreaming for a long time. However, I can't remember anything else. My dream recall is really getting bad!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Woke up at 5:25am as was set for my watch alarm. As I did the previous day, before I had gone to bed I had watched videos about lucid dreaming, read about lucid dreaming, and wrote about lucid dreaming, all with the hopes of getting lucid dreaming into my mind and making it happen again. The alarm was set for around 6 hours after going to bed as well.

It worked. To make sure I wouldn't fall back asleep too soon and therefore make use of the WBTB method, I let my watch alarm snooze twice before I switched it off. That ensured that I stayed awake for 15 minutes before drifting back off to sleep. I never actually left my bed because I have found that doing that wakes me up too much, so I settled with sitting up and reality checking and being almost fully awake that way.

Anyway, once I fell asleep, I found myself in a maze of a neighborhood. There were houses with sidewalks that worked like a maze, which led to a pool that had a similar maze around it, which led to a restaurant that was laid out like a maze...it was all very closed in, other for parts of it being open to the sky. Most of it was under a ceiling, though. I was looking for a particular friend of mine, who seemed to be nowhere to be found. As time went on, I kind of started to realize that this situation was not normal. It really pushed the boundaries for me, though, when Africans in tuxedos started to appear out of nowhere. Still, I didn't quite recognize the fact that I was dreaming just yet. I walked up to another friend of mine who happened to be just standing there, and I asked her: "Hey, have you seen A.J. anywhere?" She began to reply with ambiguous and answers that really didn't do me any good. I got frustrated pretty quick, and told her, "Just tell me where he is!" "You can't make me." She replied. "Yes I can!" I said. "I'm dreaming! I can do whatever I want...hey. Wait! That's right! I'm dreaming! This is my dream! I'm lucid!!" Suddenly I realized how out of it everyone around me seemed. They weren't actually doing a whole lot. I walked up to one of the guys in a tuxedo just standing there, and he was still as stone. I noticed how realistic his face was, but as I kept looking, he didn't even flinch or look back at me. Silently cheering, I opened a door and went inside, expecting a bathroom to be there. Sure enough, there was. I looked in the mirror and saw myself exactly as I always do when I first wake up. Hair messy, and in a white t-shirt and green shorts. "Yes! I'm lucid! Oh yeah!" I proceeded to rub my hands and spin around and feel the result, just to enjoy the moment. I was surprised at how everything blurred when I spun, just like it would in real life. Then I started to bump into everything around me just so I could feel it. Then I stopped, laughing with joy, and remembered the reality check. "Oh yes, and I can't forget to try this!" I pinched my nose and breathed in. Sure enough, I was able to do it, even though the breath seemed to be drawn in from another consciousness. I didn't realize it was a mistake at first to reality check when I was already lucid, but it became apparent pretty quick that making myself lose connection with my dream body and re-establish connection with my real body was significantly weakening the dream. My vision began to grow weak. I frantically resumed rubbing and spinning, but it seemed to do no good. Everything went black, and I thought the dream was over. But then, all of a sudden, my vision returned! "Ok," I said aloud, "not wasting any more time here." I took a look in the mirror again. "Better start small...well, I gotta have something other than this to wear if I'm going out there." I thought about how to change clothes without physically doing it. I remembered a bit about passive control and force control and decided my plan of action. "When I walk through that door, my clothes will change to some awesome black outfit." I had Jedi robes or something like that in mind. I walked through the door back outside, and then looked down to see if it had worked. There were different clothes on me now, but it was a green t-shirt and black cargo pants. "Dang it! This isn't what I meant. Ok, when I go through that NEXT doorway, my clothes are going to change to black jedi robes." So I walked through the doorway and saw several of my friends conversing together. I looked to the left and saw a mirror again. My hair had been fixed in the process of changing, but I was still in the same outfit. "Oh come on...CHANGE!" The use of direct force startled me awake.

However, although the dream was short, it was the most vivid one yet, and I remembered much of what I've learned about lucid dreams, so in several ways it was a success.

That makes DILDs = 3