task of the month

22 Apr 2019

I appear in a dream scene which is just building around me. My awareness is high and as if I am really ready for this. (I have been thinking about having an ld but not much other induction that night, although I did check the task of month in order to have a purpose in case a lucid happens).

As I look around the shaky environment, I recall the Red & Black clothes task for this month. There is a female DC with whatever original clothes she was wearing. I change them to red, then to black. One's a T-shirt with something in white written on it, the other more like a robe. I realize I can't recall whether we had to change from red to black or vise versa, so I change the color of her clothes multiple times just to be on the safe side. I make a note that this color change wasn't as difficult as I had for some reason expected.

End of memory

28 Dec

My awareness spikes in the middle of the dream, making me pay more attention to the surroundings. I am certain this is a dream and happy about it.

It takes a bit to recall my totm intentions and in the meantime I decide to improvize and go bananas with dream control. I start a massive onslaught on the dream environment, initially tking all sorts of objects in sight and later doing impromptu room modifications. It seems to come quite naturally although I am not too sure what precisely am I trying to accomplish. The technique is look straight ahead and modify with thoughts the door and everything behind it, and once changed, bring it back to its original version. <possibly subconsciously trying to integrate a version of the portal from Dr Strange>

Once I have calmed down a bit, I finally recall I wanted to do task of the month. There was a familiar DC running around so I ask him to bring to me the potion of forbidden knowledge. He gives me a light blue medieval type of bottle and I drink the small amount of liquid it contains. Nothing happens for a while, which leaves me slightly disappointed as I was preparing for some sort of false memory revelation to take place.

I still feel quite euphoric being in the dream and I recall how you can actually use dreams to improve yourself, including physically <quote below>. At this stage I am very enthusiastic and totally determined to use the dream to influence my appearances and get more muscular. Quite conveniently a mirror appears right ahead, so I look at myself as I try to flex my stomach muscles. As if this isn't enough to get me in good shape, I decide to do some crunches and get on the floor.

I also imagine myself doing crunches every time I have a lucid dream, as a part of a new fitness routine. I do around 10 crunches with great ease. The movements are really light and pleasant, but this seems to exhaust my concentration and the dream soon ends.

Originally Posted by Harvard Business Review

If I dream about doing crunches, will I develop killer abs?

Yes and no: You won’t really get a six-pack just by dreaming, but research shows that envisioning yourself doing exercises can make specific muscles stronger, so you should get a stronger belly than if you didn’t dream about crunches. In general, if you want to improve in waking life, dreams are the perfect place to do it. 

27 Feb

I'm in a room with lots of DCs. Some of them are leaving for an event. There are different kinds of chocolate boxes at a nearby counter. The DCs go to get chocolate, leaving a bit of a mess. I take couple of chocolates as well and consume them slowly. There's a particular idleness in my mind. I recall I was trying to fall asleep. Something tells me I can already act as if in the dream. I look around - indeed it's a dream. In still somewhat clouded awareness I recall about totm.

This is now incorporated in the dream - there's a room where people do the current totm. It then changes to totm suggestions written on the door. Spellbee has suggested that we do programming def functions which appear on the door.

My awareness increases and I now have greater clarity. I decide to leave this place and look for a window or door. I opt for the nearest door though a bit afraid I may end up in a labyrinth inside a building rather than outdoors. There's an unappealing old corridor with worn out walls. Luckily, after I reach its end is another door leading outside.

I'm now walking near a wall, wondering what will be on the other side once I glance at it. A couple of blocks like those in my hometown appear. I stop to contemplate briefly on this entire process. How and why did these blocks appear, from all the possible items and images that could have been assembled. Did I think them up? Why precisely these objects and not something else. I stare in the distance ahead, thinking that I am not seeing images. What I am seeing are endless possibilities of what could be there.

After the feeling of amazement has subsided a bit, I decide to get back to the totms. I am now on top of the wall and think about summoning the book of secrets from the basic task. To do so, I cover the top of the surface with my palm, moving it slowly to reveal the book behind. A red leather book promptly appears underneath with to my suprise the title Book of Secrets. It has relatively few pages and they are all leather. On the first browse there's a list of words with positive qualities or goals. One of the words is "innocent". I try to memorize two more words but forget them after wake. The entire book has a rather medieval appearance. The rest of the pages contain portraits of figures of importance like cardinals or archdukes. I browse one last time to find pictures of weird experiments that were done at the time. Some sort of medieval type of scientific research.

Memory gap. There were several moments of the dream thinning out and me back to bed and back to dream, ruining coherent recall.

The next scene I remember, I am still lucid and inside a room talking to a DC. I want to continue with totms and the task I recall next is the advanced one to change the weather. I confidently ask the DC for help - "There's something you can help me with. I know you can do this!" We are near a window and I can see the outside ground. It's not too evident which season it is - just bare ground, but I need it to be definitely winter.

I turn my back so that I don't see the outside world but face the DC. She is looking outside and waves her hands around as if she is painting the snow. I then turn around and look again - now everything is covered with snow! Alright, now we need for spring or summer to come. I turn myself around and let the DC do her magic again. I look back and the snow-covered ground is now green grass. There's a weird bird resembling a toucan but much larger walking on the grass. Its beak is very unusual - a shiny green color. A closer look reveals that its beak is actually a purely reflective mirror-like surface and the green is just the grass being mirrored. Now there are several of these birds with shiny green beaks, black feathers with strangely warped structures. I am amazed at the kinds of stuff dreams can come up with.

I take one last look at the weather transformation - despite the season change, it's still a bit dark and cloudy. To let the sunshine in, decide to get rid of the clouds. First, I stretch my arm and literally pick a few clouds from the sky as if they were nearby objects. Moreover, I get the sudden desire to try to blow the rest of the clouds away. I do it and it actually works! Now the scene is much brighter.

The dream soon thins out and I feel my body once again. I fall asleep almost immediately and end up in another room. I feel this dream idleness which makes me realize I am still dreaming. I come up with a funny song and start dancing around while DCs stare at me. Pretty fast this time, the dream disappears, I feel my body once again and wake up.

25 Jan

Wbtb

I am falling asleep in a sort of FA. I am now sure that if nothing else works to induce a lucid, it will help me become lucid if I write it down on a piece of paper. light sleep.

I am now deeper in the dream and ascertain that my paper writing induction albeit done in-dream is indeed effective. I'm fully aware staring at the sheet of paper with the words LUCID written. My grandma comes in the room and starts cleaning the table, asking me a million questions. I know it's a dream and there's no point answering, so I tell her to let me concentrate. She refuses to acknowledge it being a dream and keeps on asking me stuff, so I have to move to the side to avoid being distracted.

I tk a number of small household objects, then tk the door handle and finally the door to the balcony open. I go outside, thinking that I have no idea what to do for points and regretting not making a more comprehensive list of things. The sky is mostly sunny, so I decide to darken it, although it pains me a bit to ruin a beautiful sunny day. The result is a greyer sky but not completely overcast. I also make a thunder sound in the distance.

Not sure what to do next, I opt for using some weird machine part help me get down from the balcony to the ground (as opposed to jump/flight due stability). There are couple of DCs being rather loud near the corner so I go check what's happening. Nothing too unusual, just a family walking and laughing.

I recall now I wanted to do the headstand challenge and look towards the street. At the moment the street's empty, but the cars are about to soon reach my target section, coming from the nearby street. Nevertheless, doing the headstand in the middle of the street seems tremendously appealing. I briefly wonder what's gonna happen once the cars start coming, but decide that I can handle it. Actually, the way I start doing the headstand is with my back to the cars - that in a way solves the problem (no seeing, no thinking, therefore they don't exist). Two DCs come distract me as I do the headstand. I scold one of them and tell him to assist me instead and help get my legs straight pointing towards the sky. I had reservations about being upside down in this posture and the dream collapsing but it doesn't. I stay a bit more, then get up.

We continue to walk down the street with one of the DCs. At this stage I already feel "memory flood" and inability to save/recall some of the details of the dream. At any rate, quite happy this dream already lasted longer than expected and keeps on going. I look over one of the buildings and see the sun shining again, now it seems closer to sunset. I really like how the sun moved like that during the dream, giving quite of a realistic feel of time. The sunset may in addition mean that the dream is coming to an end, I think.

I recall the basic totm of finding a present under the Christmas tree. A while ago we passed by a nice Asian food shop and lots of other items on a long street I can't recall. I decide to go back in that direction, since I feel it will be much easier to find a tree there. Indeed, in front of one cafe is a large decorated Christmas tree. To summon the present, I say to the DC, I clearly recall they were exchanging gifts in the cafeteria and and am sure they forgot one. I stretch my hand and without looking feel a package right underneath the tree. It contains what looks like empty jewellery carton box and a card. I become very curious and want to read the card although I feel the concentration may have a negative effect on the dream. I try to read the handwriting, which changes from well wishes, to random fortunes, to advertising. Finally, there is a small sheet of stickers for a board game.

The nearby Asian shop looked quite attractive, so I decide to go back and try some foods. In a small fridge they had really cool drinks made from fruits that don't quite exist and also are processed in extraordinary ways. Me and this DC whose apperances keep changing grab a small chocolate bar each. It melts easily and tastes really sweet. As we get out of the shop, I begin to lose lucidity. The DC now turns to boyfriend and we get into a discussion. The desire to get more of the cool drinks overcomes me and my awareness increases again, although not as high as before. To summon drinks, I call one of the girls who was working in the store, going a bit back to where we were before. Sure enough, the store appears, now at a completely different place and a different store, but that doesn't matter, it still looks pretty fancy and serves drinks. The girl that works there comes with a bottle full of freshly made exotic drink and a small glass of red juice. She spills the glass, but I am still able to have a try from what's left. It tastes quite nice. I wake up.

On the street, I decide to tk around 10 cars at the same time. I reflect how obvious this is compared to my real life RCs. The cars levitate in the air, then slowly move higher towards the night sky. I recall the basic totm and look at the sky seeing tons of stars. But wait, these are not stars, these are the headlights of hundreds of cars that are being lifted and controlled by my thoughts. Hundreds of stars headlights gently moving around. I enjoy the view for a while then decide to go for some element bending, starting with metal bending the nearest fence.

Earlier Ld frag: I shortly become lucid and recall the basic totm, start looking for a book. I think I find one with gibberish on it.

Other dreams and the above section is mostly forgotten.

Nld part: I get dragged into some sort of a drinking contest where people queue, leave a bottle, get points for it, then are served drinks, some pay for them, score more points. I order grapefruit white wine cocktail. It takes forever to get it but the bartender finally gives me my glass - with a little pink liquid at the bottom. It tastes like smoothie, not too bad but definitely not grapefruit and wine. I continue to the next stage of the contest up some stairs where I find myself in an elevator shaft by mistake. I try to get out of there.

A man requests my assistance lifting some of his contest goods. In another room - another guy leaves his PC above the toilet seat.

I'm outside now and everything suddenly comes into focus. It was as if I wasn't seeing where I was the moment before. But now I know - it's a dream. I look around thinking about it. On an unknown street, I try to determine my location. Never been here before. I look at the style of buildings trying to assess which country is this. Maybe the States. I begin to recall that I had another very brief lucid already with the totm. It's a bit blurry and I only recall looking for the book. Better not to go into too much thought right now.

Let's find another book and see what's written there. I walk down the street thinking about summoning a book. Despite my overall confidence of being able to summon almost anything, this feels like one of these dreams where the environment is different and as if the summon won't work. I walk down the street looking around and wondering whether to enter inside to look for a book but this seems like a bad time consuming idea. I see a pile of junk near one of the houses and decide to investigate it.

There are couple of books right on top. How convenient! The first one is a notebook, so I put it to the side. Then I grab three differently colored books with lavishly decorated hardcovers. I take the top one and examine it. What does the title say? Gibberish again. Would that count, I feel disappointed. I look again as the letters keep changing until they finally make actual words "The boredom of God". I browse through the pages which are filled with more gibberish words and think about this. Maybe god is bored because I can't get any information out of this book. Nevermind. I look up and try to memorize the title. Surely I will forget this any moment now so I decide to shout it out loud several times.

I keep shouting as I look around. I feel excited to have a lucid dream. I want to stay here longer, but as am about to shout again, the dream starts to thin out and I wake up.

Date: 28 Dec

A typical chase-run scenario - it's been a while since I had one of these. With this one, not so much being chased but rather running away. At the old place, menacing DCs coming, I jump out the window, land on the neighbors' porch, grab some food and take off again. I continue running and flying at top speed in the neighborhood, passing by houses and yards. My awareness gradually increases and while I'm flying around this interesting old looking red building, I begin to tell myself that I'm dreaming. Now, I also find myself circling around the building while using the sticky fingers technique to hold myself to the surface. Yes, definitely dreaming.

I remember the first part of the mantra, the basic totm which was to laugh in front of a DC. There's only buildings and trees around so I fly ahead to reach the street where I spot a weirld looking DC. He's the unpleasant overly active to mildly aggressive DC type. Couple more DCs appear near us and I send him to the side to interact with them instead. I come across a tall handsome Swedish looking guy with ear-length blond hair. I make a mental note of his appearance. Ok, task time already - I announce to him that for this totm I will have to laugh like a crazy person. He waits in expectation as I laugh out loud in a manner that sounds very unnatural. This doesn't seem to impress him much and he just keeps looking at me with a blank expression. I think about the other tasks but the dream thins out and I wake up.

Date: 22 Dec

A nld scene with classmates and unknown DCs. Later the unknown DCs cause tension.

As the DCs keep looking me in the eyes, I begin to realize that I am dreaming. I examine them in greater detail, now fully convinced. I tell them this and start to control them, making them look happier and make them loudly express their excitement.

We are in the living room now. I recall the phone task, look to the side, where there is a black home phone, a slightly older model. I ask it to ring, it does so a couple of times, then pick it up. The first try it's just the normal ready to dial sound. I hang up being confident that somebody will start talking soon and repeat the ringing, pick up again. This time it's my mom trying to lecture me about something that I'm not doing the way I should be. I feel a bit disappointed but make a mental note of it anyways.

End of memory. Other dreams.

06 Aug

Had an end of the dream back to school dild. We are in school, down the corridors and there is music playing already. I realize this is a dream and remember the music related task of the month. I concentrate on the music, which seems to be coming from everywhere and enjoy it together with the other DCs. The song sounds really familiar at the time, a famous pop song and we all sing the lyrics out loud. I remember having another forgotten ld earlier in the night that involved music too. My body moves by itself and I wake up.

12 Aug

In a room, I look to the sky and remember I can do anything. I initially think of summoning something but then remember the musical task. I decide to pretend that I am playing piano, press my fingers on the desk nearby trying to feel the keys. The keys half materialize and I start to hear a piano melody playing from all around me. The music is really deep and then the piano sound transforms into a church organ with a tune that is fitting the style. It strongly echoes all around. I listen to it some more until the dream fades.

A series of FAs where I am trying to fall asleep while a DC keeps distracting me so I can't seem to transition. After a few more FAs, I realize the previous ones were actually dreams so should have already acted there.

Scene change, some on and off lucidity scenario with family members at grandma.

Inanimate object - blanket lady

A bit later, I get a wave of really strong awareness and remember thanks to reading other people's reports the inanimate object task. There is a blanket so I lift it up with some sort of thought control and say hello. I begin to laugh and it answers me with a creepy echo laughter. Moreover, it turns and twists and becomes the upper part of an 18th century woman. In the dream I try to memorize the shape to eventually draw it later on.

Clone

After this I take quite a while trying to remember any other tasks. I am even overly concerned that all this strain will certainly end the dream, but luckily it doesn't and I recall the clone task. I try to think about myself while turning around but nothing happens. I decide to half close my eyes, risking the dream disappearing while thinking of an image of myself but again nothing happens. Finally, I decide to open the door and expect to see her/me there. This seems to work and I finally meet her. We go into the corridor where there are a number of somewhat harassing DCs and then into the kitchen. I have no idea what to do with my clone though, so we just walk around from room to room until her features change.

Then I spot Gordon Ramsay who looks very tired and I try to talk to him. Fluctuations in lucidity, rises up again while I speak to him. He asks if I can hear him well. There are distortions in the direction of the sound for a moment. The alarm wakes me up.

9 July Backlog

10 min wbtb with couple of snoozes before that

Snow

I fall asleep and find myself on the street, looking at these flowing dots, reminding me of the rain/snow and energy. I marvel them for a while and then they turn into really large snowflakes and the snow covers the street. As this is an immediate dream entry I am not fully grounded, notice that can move my hands almost ok now so I grab a bit of snow and form a snowball, throw it at a DC ahead - this requires some effort. The scene soon ends.

Restaurant attempt

A semi lucid scene follows where I am in this weird building, running away from a huge snake-like creature. I know it's a dream, but I like messing around with the scenario. I escape through the highest window.

A moment later, I find myself outside in a kitchen and think about the restaurant task. Could this theme be used for a restaurant? There are enough bottles and plates and food around, but no DCs. It doesn't look expensive though (5 star required by the task). I go outside and it turns to the yard of our place in the past. Our parents are sitting on this outdoors drinks arrangement. I wonder again if this could be used for the task, there is a table and chairs. It could well be an outdoors restaurant. The dream soon loses stability and I wake up.

Clone attempt

I find myself in a car going somewhere with a familiar DC with me on the backseat. I remember the clone task and try to summon one on the front seat. The car actually drives by itself. A DC appears on the seat but instead of me is someone that looks like S, then another guy in his 50ies or so with a beard. Overall not very attractive DCs. I still have hopes that he will be able to change so I decide to kiss him, close my eyes and imagine the DC transform. I follow the plan and as I approach to kiss him, I am surprised by the distinct feel of his beard on my lips, which I wasn't thinking is there at all. But he has a beard and there it is. I try to manipulate him into transforming while he does most of the kissing obviously enjoying himself. It's not pleasant at all but I get all the details of his lips seeming independently controlled movements. He doesn't change so I pull away and whine a few times for him to transform then the dream ends.

wake up, very brief review

Expensive restaurant

A non-ld scenario goes on for a while, then towards the end I come to my senses and remember the restaurant task. I walk around looking for something that will do. This task starts to get really difficult, I am thinking. I'm now outside facing a swimming pool which reminds me of the one in front of the hotel. I know there is a restaurant there that should offer fancy food. However, I'm slightly concerned about my ability to reach it as I feel uncontrollable dream instability all around. As a result, I carefully sway forward like a drunken person till I cross over the swimming pool and get to the side where the restaurant is.

There are already people sitting near a large table with tons of champagne bottles here and there. Champagne, that is good, it means the restaurant is expensive, I think to myself due to the 5* requirement of the task. There is a plate of oysters and other fish canapés so I head towards it and eat the special mixture there. It tastes similar to a freshly made salmon spread. I'm feeling pretty satisfied with the task up to this point, though there could have been more food. My mom comes to distract me with something she apparently cooked, trying to convince me to taste it. I do and then shortly after lose lucidity.The dessert comes - a chocolatey profiteroles sundae but the dream ends.

Clone girl - frag

I end up in the room, lucid again, remember the clone task, close the door, try to summon a clone. This girl comes in, she is not quite me, but will do. I try to remember what I wanted for us to do. Can't remember after that.

Flying - frag

I remember flying and getting higher out of the sudden and then recall our recent conversation with Ginsan about finding something to zoom in to. So, I just keep looking down, trying to find something awesome and as I do, I find myself flying over fantastic valleys with green grass and orange colored trees. The entire scene is very color saturated. Then, I zoom in towards the ground and pick up a poppy flower. I find this so amazing. Nothing's more awesome than picking up a flower.

01 July Backlog

Recall is rather poor. I end up doing an in-dream wild from a bathroom that looks like ours.Scene change and awareness rises as I look around the new room with couple of DC near me. After a bit, I recall the plant seed totm and notice there are a flower pots at the end of the room. To summon the seed, I place my hands on the soil and randomly grab whatever is there, then examine my hand. In the palm of my hand, from the soil emerges a large seed which I then place back in the flower pot and allow to grow. It quickly transforms into several really cute small plants with pink flowers. I fear forgetting the details so repeat to myself several times the description of the flowers. Then I walk around the room for a while longer, while noticing some visual issues - you can say it was the classic dream instability - but the scene felt rather liquid? After a struggle it finally dissolves.

I have a short ld in between other dreams, so remember only parts of it. Once again I remember the totm and go find a mirror, this time look at the mirror but instead of myself see the reflection of the DC next to me (looking from an angle). I. Keep staring at the mirror for as long as possible and this time the face of the DC starts changing, it shifts from one DC to another DC, female to male features and vice versa. It goes on for a while, a very cool thing to watch.

I was planning on doing a wbtb and then lding for the totm, but I got the ld before the wbtb.

A very long dream where me and mom go from tasting food at some fancy restaurant to running away from street thugs in a nasty area. The dream covered a great deal of distance by foot. At some point towards obviously the end of the REM, my awareness goes up and I have a moment of clarity. I remember the totm and actually also a moment before all the running away and eating that was also lucid and I did a quick tree climb there as well but a short one before losing lucidity. We are in the streets of this South African town and I am excited about exploring, thinking I can do the task of the month later as I feel I have plenty of time. Still, I decide to give it a try now rather than later. There is a tree right in front of me, and while holding something in one hand, I use the other to climb up the tree. It is very easy to do, which feels weird and cool at the same time. As I focus on the tree, couple more branches appear and I wonder would this turn into an endless climbing. Luckily, the tree height stops to extend beyond and I finally reach its top. I remind myself to have a look at the surroundings, checking out the streets below, the buildings ahead and what looks like a small park in between. At this point, the dream ends rather unexpectedly.

Date: 16 May

Wbtb

I fall asleep and have a brief non-ld where I am with family members in this unfamiliar house. It's dark in the room and I am trying to fall asleep but they keep on talking so loud. At some point everybody leaves and I find myself in a large movie room with big screen TV and loud bass systems. I think to myself that I find it really weird people are so obsessed with these things. A large TV, so what? Now, it would be much cooler if actually you were making this whole TV into existence, if you were the cause of all the music - ie. if you are dreaming all this. Then this will give a whole new meaning to the experience. I take a moment to imagine how it would feel.

Memory gap. I end up in another room where I feel my awareness come into focus and I realize that I made it to the dream. My mom is also here for a bit. I remember a few goals and also the advanced task of doing an in-dream wild and briefly consider trying it. However, this is not among the goals I reviewed during the wbtb and now I can't remember (also irl at the time of journalling) whether this is still the current month's task or already last month's. I decide I don't want to end up doing an old task and drop it altogether. There is a large earth globe in the completely empty now narrow room and I do a mix of telekinesis and wind blowing it around wondering if that would count towards air bending. After I have enough fun with levitating it around, I recall the other basic task - become friends with the monster under your bed.

I move forward and cautiously open the door to the next room, hoping this will work to reveal something handy. It opens into a dark room, which I disregard and continue forward. There is a bed just ahead of me and I lean down and look to see what's below. There is a ton of junk piled up. While I try to think of a monster being there I get a flash of disappearing transparent eyes. I decide to stare in the stuff below in the hopes that something will show up. After a while, I begin to see a movement under some rags and follow it. It stops and then starts at another place. I dig a bit to finally find the monster - a grey mouse! The little beast is so hyperactive it is hard to keep it in one place and as I try to hold it and make friends it even bites me! I think about the task again taking mental notes of what is going on. Ok, it has to calm down so I start caressing it. I do so for a bit until it finally calms down, I make another mental note about this and conclude that we are now friends.

The dream seems to end but it's actually an FA. I find myself journalling a page and a half worth of dreams with a lot of details and also noting my goals for the next dream. The tablet then malfunctions and keeps giving me a gaming radar with the bad guys as red dots coming near. I'm getting really confused about this since I think I have solved all my problems for the moment. It then switches to a cool 16 bit game with characters unknown to me. I decide to play it for a bit and it actually works like a normal game - very complex and thoroughly thought out. Yet I can't comprehend how this game self installed on my tablet. Why do I have this game? And then it hits me! This is an FA and I just wrote a ton of dreams for nothing. But the game - well that was pretty awesome, I think to myself, I played quite a bit of a dream game. I'm super amazed at this. The dream soon ends.