non-lucid

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

My dreams were quite short last night...I don't think I slept properly. Like I was waking up in the middle of REM. I remembered several dreams this way, but there wasn't much time to go lucid, and if I had, I couldn't have done anything much...

Dream 1: I was part of the Heroes TV show, only it wasn't a show, it was real. It was the episode from not too long ago where Sylar wanted Matt Parkman to put a block in his mind so he wouldn't have his powers any more. Just like in the real episode, Matt refused.

That's when I showed up, in Peter's place, only I was myself. I had empathic mimicry like Peter did in Season 1. I didn't feel confident with all my abilities, but I knew they were there and that I could use them with some work, so I volunteered instead of Matt.

"I'll help you, Sylar. I don't know how to use these powers very well yet, but I can do my best."

At first, Sylar refused. "This is a matter of messing with my mind; I'm not going to let someone who isn't familiar with their powers try it and just see how it goes."

But no matter how hard he tried to get Matt to do the job, there was just no way Matt would give in. So eventually Sylar did let me try to go in his mind and 'disable' his powers. It took some work, but I did it, and so Sylar turned into a good guy.

Which reminds me; I want to try to mind-read a DC in a lucid dream...that could be very interesting.

Dream 2: I was sitting in a circle of chairs with other people from real life that I know. One of them was telling jokes she said she found off the internet. All of them rhymed really well, and were legitimately funny! One of them made me laugh so hard I fell over backwards in my chair and the shock of falling woke me up.

Unfortunately, waking up that way didn't give me time to think about any of the jokes and write them down...but I know for sure that they really rhymed, and were really funny! And in waking life, I'm terrible with poetry and those kinds of jokes...talk about hidden potential.

Dream 3: I was missing a dream sign. Frequently in my dreams I'm going on some sort of vacation with my extended family, which is exactly what I was doing in this one. We were looking for some place to stop and eat (which is also a common occurrence) and we found nothing, so we stopped at this one random school building and went inside. There were boxes on a table in there with a food inside that looked sort of like pizza.

"Peregogies!" My brother in law exclaimed. "These things are awesome!"

They did taste really good, and so I had quite a bit. But then my stomach started to feel sick. All of a sudden I stood up and shouted:

"I HATE peregogies!"

Everyone was shocked. They all started to yell back at me and tell me that I was crazy and ungrateful and I just tried to stand up straight with a dizziness that was setting on. Eventually I couldn't, and I fell down, throwing up on the floor.

This was definitely one of those dreams I was relieved to wake up from. No, I didn't throw up in my bed; in fact, I feel totally fine. Whatever 'peregogies' (pronounced 'pare-uh-GOH-jeez') are, I know not to eat them again

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, I think I was close to going lucid last night. At one point there was a false awakening of sorts, which always brings me somewhat close to lucidity. I probably would have done a RC if it weren't for the guy with the knife...

Dream 1: I was on a huge ship; it looked like one of those cruise ships, but I am honestly not sure of this ones purpose.

"We have the worlds smartest AI aboard," said an official as he checked me in to my room. "It ten years ahead of its time; we honestly don't plan on using our pilot, even if storms come up. This machine knows how to handle it all."

"It's incredible how far artificial intelligence has come." I commented as I set down my bags and began unloading them into drawers.

"Plus," the official added with a tap to a badge on his coat, "all authorities around here have on of these. They each perform simple AI functions. All together they control every part of the machine, but to make sure no one has that kind of power, the controls were split up into badges like this one."

"It's that powerful a computer, is it?"

The official nodded. "Well," he said, "enjoy your stay."

I nodded to him and he left, closing the door behind him.

I continued getting everything unpacked and then just rested on one of the bunks in the little room. A couple hours later, the boat rocked a little and the sun shone through the window just right to cause something on the floor to sparkle. I got up to see what it was, and discovered that the official's AI controller badge had fallen off as he left. Of course my first reaction was to pick it up and return it to him, but unfortunately, as I began to do so, I bumped a little green button on the side. The badge began beeping furiously, and I could hear a bigger alarm going off outside. Although no camera or microphone was visible on the badge, I knew it was recording me somehow, so I leaned far off to the side and remained silent until the alarm stopped.

"Ok, now I really need to get this back to the guy that checked me in and clear this mess up."

So I got up, opened the door, and saw another official running down the hallway.

"Excuse me, sir!"

"You!" He shouted. "What are you doing with that badge?"

"I found it on the floor in my room; I'm sorry about all the alarms, I bumped a button when picking it up so I could return it to the official that checked me in."

He smirked. "That's what they all say! You're coming with me."

I got a solid punch to the chin and everything went black.

Next thing I know, a bag is being pulled off my head, my hands are chained behind my back, and all I'm wearing is a pair of torn up brown shorts. There were 30 or so others around me in the same situation.

"Who are these people?" I asked, figuring it would end up answering all my questions at once.

"These are the people who stood behind your claim that the badge you found was left by a mistake of the official." The burly man holding my chains answered. "Your numbers are too strong; therefore, to prevent a mutiny, the captain has ordered that you all be put to death by bomb."

That last bit sure got my attention. Looking around, I saw that everyone was being led behind a barrel and chained to it, all in rows. Not all the people being chained were very old; some looked to be only 11 or 12. Anyone who had stood up on my part was being brought there.

"Sit here." The burly man said, pushing me down behind a barrel in the back corner of the square formed by all the rows of explosives and people.

He then pulled my hands around front and tied their chains around the barrel so that I could not possibly get away or survive the explosion. Everyone was ready now; it was only a matter of time before all of us faced our doom. Hearing the others cry was the worst part, though. Being helpless to save myself was one thing, but being helpless to save those who so faithfully stood behind me was far worse.

A lady official dressed all in white went through the rows checking the chains. At first the surrounding officials closely examined her work, but once they were certain she was doing it right, they focused on readying the blasting detonator. The lady went by each person in front of me, row by row...and after what seemed like forever, was at the person to my right, and then, at me, the last person on the last row. I closed my eyes and prepared to feel the chains stiffen a bit more...but instead, I felt them loosen. My eyes snapped open, and I beheld the lady pulling on the chains around my wrists and freeing me.

"Ready!" She called. Then she turned to me and whispered: "The smoke will cloud your exit; I'll be waiting straight back to your left. As soon as you start seeing smoke, run! You'll have only a few seconds. I can't guarantee you'll live. This is all I can do. I'm sorry."

I was shocked, but I paid attention. She ran off as fast as she could, and I waited with my hands in the chains as if I were still trapped, so no one would re-chain me before the explosion was started. A few seconds later, I could hear the detonator lever being pressed, and smoke instantly shot up in my face. I fled, then, as fast as my legs would carry me, in the direction I had been told.

The sound of the wailing, suffering people behind me was almost too much, but somehow I went on, and then...

BOOOM!

The explosion knocked me to the ground, but I made it out before the flames could reach me. The flames were so realistic; limbs and heads flew out towards the sea accompanied by the final screams of those unfortunate enough to be on the back row, which exploded the latest. It was a horrible sight to see.

Before I had time to mourn, however, the lady official pulled me up and led me to her room.

"I'm...terribly sorry." She said. "This should never have happened."

A few moments of silence passed.

"I...I would have stood behind you as well, but when I saw what direction things were heading, I decided it was best I keep my silence and help you this way."

"No, no, don't be sorry for not standing behind me! I couldn't bear another soul suffering the fate of those poor people."

Another few moments of silence.

"Well...I expect you're not up for formalities right now," the lady said, "but just so you know, my name is Meg. I have clothes for you in the bathroom. You can take a shower and then rest until I come back. No one will disturb you here, so get all the sleep you can. We have much work to do."

She left me then, and went about her shipboard duties for the rest of the day. I took a shower and got into the clothes Meg had left for me, and then tried to relax. Of course, even though I was physically and emotionally worn out, I couldn't. Looking around the room, I found a small bookshelf and a handful of books on it. Reading one of those for a few minutes helped a good bit, and soon I fell asleep.

Waking up was a much weirder experience, though. I was suddenly in my room from real life, and really thought I had woken up from a dream. There was a noise outside the door, but it didn't bother me. "It's locked; no one can come in." I thought. But then I heard the noise again, and this time it sounded like the door opened. So I sat up in bed with a start to find the door opened just a crack, but the doorknob was indeed set to the locked position. No one was there. "I must not have closed it all the way last night." Excuses, excuses.

I lay back in bed, but only moments later heard a much louder noise and this time actually saw someone walking in. He was dressed all in black, had his head completely wrapped up in a black scarf. He also had a knife. I remained completely still and silent so he would mistake me to be asleep. Then, as soon as he got close enough, I let my fist rip through the air and land right on his nose. It stunned him enough for me to literally jump out of bed and land a kick to his stomach, which was also enough to knock the knife from his hand and send it flying into the wall.

The man fled then, and the dream seemed to wash away like rain and return me to the ship I was on previously. Meg walked inside and looked scared.

"What happened?" She asked. "I saw an executioner outside! Has he found you?"

"Has he?" I repeated, pulling the knife from the wall. "This was his weapon!"

"Then they know." Meg's face seemed to darken. "They know you're alive. That just makes our time that much shorter."

"I'm ready."

That entire day was spent sneaking all around the ship, avoiding detection, and visiting the rooms of people who Meg said also supported me, but in secret. Of course they too were furious about the death of those who had supported me up front, and now were ready to assist even at risk of their own lives.

So we set out, and one by one, were able to pick-pocket the badges from the officials (with the help of Meg and her legally obtained badge). Of course by the end of the day they knew something was up with all their badges missing, but we had been so careful that no one stood out as a suspect, and there were only rumors that I was still alive; no solid proof (apparently the executioner was not hired by the officials and did not care to alert them of my presence).

Finally, at sunset, we had every badge, and thus complete control of the most advanced AI in the world. Every member of our secret group was in hiding outside the captain's cabin, and just as he walked outside, we jumped out with a loud war cry. I made sure to stand above the crowd, triumphantly holding the badges above my head so that the officers would know they had been defeated.

Fear was in every one of their eyes as we used the AI to gather them together in the center of the ship. I left Meg in control of the AI for a moment so I could personally speak to the officers one last time. It was nice seeing them afraid of my authority for a change.

"Based on what you did to my friends you should have the same done to you." I said. "But that would make me no better than any of you. Does everyone here know how to swim?"

No one answered; they knew that I knew it was a requirement for an officer to be able to swim.

I moved a safe distance away and then nodded to Meg. With the press of a button, the AI flipped up the floor that the officers were on, flinging them into the air and out over the water. I'm pretty sure there was land nearby somewhere.

That night everyone threw a party. There were cool lights and tiki lamps and great music and all that. I was going to ask Meg to dance (), but my alarm started going off and woke me up before I could.

Oh well. It may not have been lucid, but it was still a decent dream.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Very little dream recall. In fact, all I remember is I was trying to torrent something with my PDA, and I had to leave and take it with me, but I didn't want to lose my wireless internet signal and stop the torrent. Somehow I got it to connect to my car and then drove off.

I should have gone lucid from this...

#1 my PDA only has bluetooth, not WiFi, #2 my car doesn't supply internet, #3 I can't run a torrent program on my PDA, and #4 if I could, I would just have paused it and left rather than worry about it messing up

I'm getting pretty tired of missing so many obvious things...sooner or later the RCs must start bleeding into my dreams.

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, I did kinda have REM rebound, but I didn't quite go lucid Almost, but not quite.

Dream 1: I was in a huge spaceship, was some sort of government agent, and had a highly important mission: to safely deliver three rubber wristbands; one of them that frequently changed color, and the other two invisible. Though separate the three were powerless, when linked together, they created the most powerful energy source known to man. It had to be taken to earth government for safekeeping and to stop the energy crisis that was taking place below.

At first, the ride was pretty uneventful. I just sat there and guarded the wristbands with another guy who looked to be about ten years older than me. After a while, a rather fat guy in a white T-shirt and torn up jeans stopped by and asked how it was going.

"Going well," relied my partner. "Now move along; passengers aren't allowed in these quarters."

"Who ever said I was a passenger?" The fat guy said with a somewhat evil smile.

Intense music started playing. I leaned forward a bit in my seat and slid my hand down to the gun on my belt.

"But, I'll move along anyway."

The music died down and I relaxed my grip. All was normal for a few more seconds. Then, all of a sudden, a loud whistle echoed in the hallway outside our little room, and a fierce wind rushed inside, blurring my vision and knocking me to the ground...which in turn knocked me completely out.

When I awoke, my partner had been knocked out as well. The room was a mess; everything was torn up...and the safe with the wristbands was open and empty. We wasted no time; it was obvious who took them. It seemed just a moment later that we were knocking at the cabin door of the fat guy. While we waited for the knock to be answered, my partner explained his plan.

"I'll keep him busy talking. You sneak in around us and find the wristbands, and then get back out. Go back to the safe; don't wait for me."

I nodded, and then hid around the corner just in time for fatso to open the door.

"Do you know anything about fuel cell rods?" my partner asked.

"Well now, let's see..." fatso replied, also stepping out a bit, providing the perfect opportunity for me to slip by.

Once inside the cabin, I went straight for fatso's closet. He hadn't had a chance to find a great hiding spot for the wristbands yet, so the closet seemed the most sensible place to look. I put on a pair of goggles that would allow me to see the invisible wristbands, and found them almost instantly. As I quietly sneaked back out, I saw that my partner had been successful in distracting fatso. They were deep into conversation and fatso had no idea that I had ever been there.

It seemed like our plan had worked...until I accidentally connected all three wristbands as I clasped them and ran off. A big energy ball formed in my hand and developed a strong magnetic force. I couldn't stop it; and it grew larger and larger until sort of exploding and shooting off--right at fatso! He was completely knocked unconscious, and my partner was even kicked back a little. "Run!" He said, coming to catch up to me.

It was close, but we did get the wristbands back into the safe (which was suddenly not torn up, same with the rest of the room). Mission accomplished? You wish. Only minutes later, fatso shows up at our door again, grinning wickedly. He held out a paper that appeared to be some legal document.

"You stole from me, and physically assaulted me. That is punishable by law." He said.

"Steal?!" I shouted. "You stole government property from us! And you were going to use it for your own selfish purposes. That's what's punishable by law."

"You abused government property for personal gain." Fatso accused. "But I am willing to forgive it all if you will simply hand over the wristbands."

"No." My partner said. "This is ridiculous. We've done nothing wrong, the explosion was an accident, and you've broken just about every law possible on this ship."

"You won't give it up?" Fatso asked.

"No." I said. "And we'll fight you with all we've got, too."

Suddenly, the wall had a hole blown through it, and Darth Vader walked in with hundreds of stormtroopers. I picked up a lightsaber from amidst the debris of the wall and fought Vader, while the ship's crew fought all the troopers. But it was a futile fight; we were outnumbered. Before long, we were forced to surrender, and Darth Vader forced us to turn the wristbands over to fatso.

I woke up then, but kind of DEILDed. Except, I wasn't lucid. I just back in that same spaceship. No longer was I some guard; I was just myself.

Dream 2: A bunch of my friends and I were gathered in a circle on the steel floor talking about lucid dreaming. "I think we should try FILD." one of them suggested. The rest of us agreed; it was a pretty new induction technique for everyone there, so we figured we could help each other out along the way. So we all lay down in sleeping bags and tried to FILD. I remember feeling very close to sleep, and so I began the finger movements. Very quickly, I felt SP come on. "It must be time to reality check!" I thought. So I reached up to do a nose pinch...

...but woke up before I could. How annoying. But at least I was close! I thought about reality checking in the dream and was well on my way to doing one; if I could just think about it earlier on in the dream, perhaps I could have a decent lucid!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, that was annoying. Last night as I was going to sleep, I was thinking about stuff I'd want to do if I went lucid. For some reason, "play Wii" came to mind. "Nah," I told myself, "I don't want to do that. I can do that in real life, and it wouldn't really be any different in a dream." And then I thought up other stuff.

Dream 1: I was playing Wii. And then I went to a friend's house and played Wii. And then I went to my sister's house and played Wii. And then I bought a new Wii game and went home and played Wii.

And there was absolutely nothing different about it than in real life, save the games were weird and the Wiimote was deadly accurate. The second dream wasn't a whole lot better, although the environment was kinda cool.

Dream 2: My family had a reunion of sorts. At an airplane factory from World War II. It was a tower with several floors and went decently high into the sky, all of it constructed of metal and concrete. It created a very rustic, mechanical atmosphere that was cool to just go exploring in, and would have made a great movie set, but otherwise was pretty boring. We had to bring our own stuff for beds, and no one thought to bring a mattress of any sort, so all we had was sheets and a concrete floor.

And then there were the toilets. They were all in one big room, lined up in columns, with no doors on the stalls. There was a drain in the floor that all the guys used instead . The showers were in that same room, but not any better than the rest of it, because the water had almost entirely rusted the metal interior.

A friend of mine (who wasn't even part of my family, so I don't know what he was doing there) and I decided to be a little adventurous, so rather than figure out something to do inside, we went outside. At the tower's four corners was a pattern of steel beams. Although difficult at first, we soon figured an easy way to climb straight up the building. We made it all the way to the top, too, and looked all around. The view was amazing! The foggy, green landscape seemed to roll on forever!

Then my foot slipped! I couldn't keep hold, and began to free fall, knocking my friend off in the process. I thought we were finished...but then we landed on the window washer and everything ended up being ok. He lowered us back down to the main floor just in time for us to leave.

As I loaded up my car, for some reason I decided to put my sheets and pillow on the roof. For some reason, this just made my dad really angry. "Your sheets are going to come right off there and land on someone's windshield and cause a wreck!" (funny that that would be the only logical thing about the dream, and I didn't think anything of it) That just seemed ridiculous, so I ignored him and left it all on the roof, totally unsecured.

About half-way home, we had to stop at not one, not two, but three restaurants all at once so that everyone got enough to eat. The first two places just weren't enough food, even though the portions were always huge. Maybe it was because no one actually ate anything at any of the three places...we just walked in, ordered, and then walked out .

Last thing I remember is making it home, and being proud to discover that the sheets and pillow had in fact not flown off the car and my dad had worried over nothing.

I am so glad that I'm getting back to RCing all the time...in just a few more days I'll be able to replace lousy dreams like these with really exciting stuff...as funny as it is to see 12 guys standing around a drain in the floor and peeing in it all at once, I'd rather fly than watch that any day

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Dream recall wasn't the best last night...I remember a couple dreams that came late in the sleeping part of the morning, but the early dreams are totally lost on me, which isn't good because that's usually where my lucids are.

But oh well, here's what I remember:

Dream 1: I was running on a track and jumping hurdles, like in an olympic competition.

Such a boring and pointless dream, IMO...I'm not a runner, and I don't have a desire to be, so why I would dream this is beyond me

Dream 2: I was running (lots of running last night...that must mean something) from someone. I don't know who or why I had to run away, but I was. And I was in a suit and wearing a top-hat. A midget DC told me to hurry and follow him down a hole because it was the safest place, so I followed. Immediately I started to slip and slide and fall down the pit. Tt was too dark for me to see anything, but fortunately I was wearing infrared goggles all of a sudden, so I switched them on. (They really made things look like infrared goggles in real life do!) What I saw through the goggles was like a cave made out of membranes...at first I thought I was being swallowed by some huge alien, but then I slid down onto rocks and figured otherwise. I switched off the goggles because it seemed I was unable to stop my descent, and I honestly would rather not know where I was going, considering I'd probably be dead when I hit the bottom. The darkness caused me to lose my sense of direction, then. Down was up and left was right and...it was so confusing! And I was always sliding. Fast, but in a constantly changing direction. I turned the goggles back on a couple times just because I couldn't fight curiosity, but it didn't really help me reorient myself. It kind of made it worse to have a visual disorientation too, actually.

Eventually I woke up from that, but I can't remember where. Another dumb dream, anyway. I wonder what's up with all the running, though...

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I'm surprised I didn't go lucid last night, honestly. I'm not real close to being over my cold yet though, so my brain probably was still just thinking like a brain does when it's on medicine.

But anyway, here is what I remember of my dreams from last night:

Dream 1: I was just walking around my house one evening like it was a normal day, when this Evanescence song popped into my head. I started whistling it, and before long attempting to emulate the sound of various instruments, too. Only the funny thing was, it was hardly emulation because I could match the sound of the instruments perfectly! Of course it was only a matter of time before I figured out how to sing in multiple voices while still doing instruments too...it was a weird feeling, yet somehow it felt fully possible.

I love musical dreams...the only problem is that you can never remember the sound of it when you wake up.

Dream 2: I wasn't personally there; just spectating. And what I saw was a girl. She was running for her life. Her outfit was white and in the style of an Elf's (like in Lord of the Rings), but I could tell she was human. And apparently she could, too. As I moved in closer, I began to hear her thoughts: "Where...not far enough." She continued running, but I gathered that what she meant by that fragment of a thought was that simply running couldn't save her. "A wall!" As I heard this thought, a great stone wall rose out of the ground directly behind her. "Not high enough." A chasm could be seen just ahead. "An obstacle!" She jumped across the gap and landed on the other side without difficulty. "Not hard enough." As she continued to run I could sense her growing fear and hopelessness. "Nothing I do is enough to escape him!" Next thing I know, I was no longer spectating, and I was that girl! And that made her problem my problem. So I thought about other methods of escape. The idea to fly came to mind. Perhaps that would be the solution! So I ran up a hill (as this girl, remember), jumped off, and turned into an eagle.

Next thing I know, I'm in a false awakening, but still as this girl. That lasted only a few moments, though.

Maybe it was just the Nyquil, but that second one seems to have a lot of symbolism to it. Maybe not. I still can't think well enough to tell...

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Well, I've been off the past few days due to the worst cold I've had in a long time, but hopefully I'll be able to get back into lucid dreaming fairly quick (right now all sleep is for restoration and I can't give my brain a work-out anyway), and for now I can at least participate in the forums a bit.

But as this IS my dream journal, I'm going to mark down an interesting dream I had last night:

I found myself a few years in the past, editing a movie a friend and I made (IRL). Things were very detailed; I noticed what Windows XP theme was being used, the individual transitions in Windows Movie Maker, and even film grain and the like.

Next thing I know it's the present day, and I'm re-editing that video with better special effects and such, as an anniversary edition or something. That went on for a little while, but pretty soon I was in a different place entirely.

All I saw were monitors in front of me, like in a security camera room. And I--the me that was asleep in my bed--was on them! I had gone to bed (IRL) sitting up against the wall so as to keep the pressure and congestion in my head to a minimum. On the largest of all the screens, I saw a timeline along the left side. Touching a certain time of the night would display what happened on the screen. I found one place where I slid down from sitting up to laying flat on my side. After that I touched the screen where it said 3:30am. I had remained on my side since that time.

I was then moved from there to being in a Best Buy store looking at Zune skins. They didn't have very many, but there was this one really cool orange one that I was going to get. I woke up shortly after buying it and walking out of the store.

When I woke up, it was 3:45. And considering the time difference between that timeline and the dream in front of it, and the fact that the timeline only showed events in half-hour increments, that was pretty amazing accuracy. Not to mention the fact that I had indeed slid down to being on my side.

Maybe it was just the Nyquil...but it's still an interesting thing, nonetheless. Kind of like a lucid OBE

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Last night's WILD attempt again did not go so great. I was just reaching the point where I was thinking, "I should start counting to keep myself awake" and next thing I know, I'm waking up. In real life. I was in the same position that I had attempted the WILD in, though, so I must have at least made it to SP.

After that I fell back asleep and had one really interesting dream (for music people, anyway):

I found myself sitting on the floor with a bunch of candies. Ferrero Rocher, from the look of them. I picked one up and placed it in a spot in that plastic tray fancy chocolates always come in. A small note played. So I put another one in, one slot higher than the previous one. A slightly higher note played. Then I took those two out of the tray and put two different candies in. Each one of them changed the octave, but played the same note as the ones before. After experimenting with this for a while, I figured out which candies would produce notes in which octave, and which positions in the tray caused which individual notes.

Next thing I know, the tray that I was working with contained several more spaces. If I filled up the available spaces and still needed more, more would simply be there. So I got to composing a song in this manner. Once I got the main melody down, I started to add in harmonies. This is where things got interesting. As I put more candies into the slots to add harmonies, I began to realize how many different notes were playing all at once and still sounding great. "How is that even possible?" I asked, amazed. So I added in some more. Still the music didn't sound bad, and in fact, it sounded even better than before! "This many notes can't good together..."

I was jerked out of that dream by a loud bang from outside, so I don't know if I was about to go lucid or not right there. But the interesting fact still remains: I was hearing impossible notes in my head. How? Well, it's simple science. Sound heard by our ears is caused by vibrations in the air. In a dream, you don't hear by your ears, there are no vibrations, and there's no air. Crazy how that works...

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Last night I tried WILD again, and I'll probably continue doing so each night until I get it right. I've had success with most other methods, so I really want to learn this one now.

I did better than last, but still didn't quite get to the dream. I reached a point where I wasn't really paying any attention to my physical body, so I guess I couldn't feel it anymore. Then I suddenly had this strange impulse, that if I thought very hard: "I'm going to lucid dream!" that I would have some mental explosion and the WILD would go farther. But I gave into the impulse anyway, and that's exactly what happened! Tingles accelerated, noises grew loud, lights flashed in the darkness. So i figured I should try it again. Same thing happened. Eventually I pushed too hard though, and the WILD broke. Everything went back to normal. I guess I woke myself up...

But I got close!

Oh yeah, and I woke up this morning with one dream in memory:

We (i.e. me and a bunch of DC's) were at the top of a big hill. There was a road going over the hill, but we were off to the side, on the grass. We had two bikes, a truck, two ropes, and a picnic lunch. As we ate, we were trying to figure out what we could do with all of it. Eventually, one of them said he had a great idea, but he didn't want to tell us what it was without showing us. He told me to get on one bike, and a short and chubby DC to get on the other. Then he tied one end of a rope to the handle bars of my bike and the other end to the back of the bike of the chubby DC. He tied the second rope between Chubby's bike and the trailer hitch on the truck. Then the DC got inside the truck and started driving, pulling the two of us along behind him...on the road! We flew down the hill (I'm sure the truck's gas pedal was floored), and it was quite enjoyable, until we realized we were going in the wrong direction! Cars were coming at us in both lanes, and we had to dodge them all by constantly switching lanes. Several times we very nearly crashed. It was quite intense, but still a lot of fun . When we finally got to the bottom of the hill, I assumed the DC in the truck would stop driving, so I let go of the handle bars to raise my fists in the air as a symbol of victory over the danger we had gone through, but I was wrong about the DC slowing down. He kept going, Chubby looked back at me and shouted, "Dude, what are you doing!?" and the handle bars on my bike got pulled by the rope which caused me to drift into the other lane right as a car sped up towards me. We collided, and I woke up.

Do not try this at home!

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

I remember having at least 3 dreams last night, but the first two are only blurs in my mind.

I found myself standing by the phone in my kitchen. It rang, and I looked at the caller ID. It was Berton. I picked it up and the dream went split-screen, one half being me, and the other half being Berton. He started delivering a prank phone message to me, pretending to be selling something and going on about it in a typical commercial tone. After a couple seconds, I hung it back up, but the 'split-screen' remained, and he kept on going with his pitch. "For some reason," I said to a couple people who were suddenly there, "he's been doing that to everyone lately...it was funny at first, but now it's getting to be just annoying."

I think more happened, but I can't remember anything else. The interesting thing about this dream is that I was conscious enough to realize that I was actually anticipating everything to happen before it did. I saw the phone and thought "that's going to ring", and in the next instant, it did. When I looked at the caller ID, I thought "it's Berton" and the next instant, I found it to be true. Now all of that happened in less than a second, but I knew very well that my thought came before the action.

I think I just proved my theory that non-lucid dreams are driven by what you expect to happen, not really by passive control

Originally Posted by LiveInTheDream

Ok, no lucids last night since it's my first day of hitting reboot on LDing, but here's what I remember from last night:

Dream 1: First thing I know, it was 12:48 in the afternoon, and I know that because I found myself looking at a clock. That time jerked me into what I thought was reality, and I realized all the things I had to do that afternoon, so I got up and just went about the day normally.

What a waste of a dream. Oh well. The second one made up for it.

Dream 2: My friends and I were doing more filming for a movie we're making, and even though throughout the whole dream I had the idea that it was all just acting, before long I was drawn into it as if it were real, and no one ran a camera any more. The plot wasn't the same as the real movie we're making, but rather it was the typical thing where the bad guy has an evil plot that the good guys have to discover and then go beat up the bad guy to stop him. I can't remember all the details, but I clearly remember that the bad guy was using eyeballs from cows as a way to focus a laser beam so that it would be powerful enough to blow up the earth. About the time the movie reached the point where I and the other good guys made it to the bad guy's base, I paused for a moment and tried to use telekinesis on something. "If this is a dream then I can use telekinesis." I told myself. Unfortunately, not being lucid, I was not able to free my mind of real-life boundaries, so telekinesis was impossible. "Ok, I'm not dreaming." I concluded. Then I headed into a huge room where the laser was, as well as the bad guy. He sent a bunch of robots after me, which I dodged and destroyed with a bunch of cool moves. It sure was fun being able to jump and flip all around the place like that! And of course the final battle between me and the bad guy was especially fun. It reminded me a lot of the Matrix; fast, intense, and super high powered. Suffice it to say that I won, and woke up shortly afterwards. It would probably get boring to try and describe each individual move we did.

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