non-lucid

Spoiler for Random Intro:

Wandering through gated back yards, jumping over fences, and looking for a bathroom, I find a downstairs apartment with the door wide open. I go inside, and shake the snow off my jacket before going any further and dripping it on the floor. But I shook it right into someone's shoes... That doesn't look so nice, so I leave, abandoning my search for the bathroom. There are an assortment of little beings that are all around me now, and no longer any snow on the ground. A few small children, two cats, and a goat are all in a circle on some green grass. They all appear to be trapped, and in danger if they stay inside this backyard maze of fences. I carry all of them over a fence except one cat. This cat is huge! I try to coax it to walk over on its own, but it is also a lazy cat. So, I pick it up, weighing well over 100 lbs, and carry it over the fence. There is another small animal, maybe a sheep, that also wants to escape. I lift the fence in the air slightly, and crawl underneath, motioning for the sheep to follow. It does, and pushes me out of the way, crawling through swiftly.

On the other side of the fence, I am face to face with a giant bat. At least I think it's a bat. Looking right at me, drooling profusely, a nasty looking orange drool. It has small flexible fangs. It also has a very powerful venom. Not very good. Biting onto my arm, I feel that none of the fangs pierces my flesh, but I don't want to take any chances, so I wrestle it away, pushing its porcelain smooth beak away. Now holding it back by the beak, we stare at each other, both still pushing at the other. The beak is so smooth, I actually rather enjoy touching it. Kind of cold to the touch as well, and very colorful with swirls of reds, browns, and oranges all throughout the beak.



The animal's owner comes by, and pulls him back by the shoulders. She tells me, "He's just hungry, sorry about that" Being sort of like a bat, I assume he eats bugs, so I tell them to hang on for a bit, while I find some food for him inside my house. There are no bugs... I go downstairs and ask my room mate if he has any bugs.

"Of course I do buddy, here ya go." and he hands me a plastic bin. 'Great! Now I can feed this thing.' I dash upstairs, but looking inside the bin I just see a loaded gun, some batteries, loose change, a few lint balls, and random other odds and ends. I take all the bullets out of the gun and toss them separately into the bin, then ditch the gun as well. 'There's gotta be bugs around here somewhere'

I go outside, and find a large group of rather juicy looking bugs on the window sill. They all look dead, but still meaty. I pick one up by the wings, a large green bug, and it starts to wiggle around a bit. 'Not quite dead yet!' so I put it back down on the window's edge. The rest of the bugs all have rigor mortis, so I know they are dead. I pile them all into my left hand and go back over to the bat creature. Somewhat human, but definitely more animal than person. I hold out my hand and he ravenously slurps them into his beak and chews them for a bit before swallowing them, followed by more drool around the edges of his beak. Quite gross.

Seeing where I got the bugs from, he walks over and looks for more. Seeing the one I left behind because it was still alive, he goes in to eat it. I pray that the bug either is spared death, or dies well, whatever is meant to be... To my surprise, the previously lifeless but twitching bug now flies off, just out of reach of the bat creature, then shoots rapidly into the sky at what I assume is maximum bug speed.

I help the bat-man (more bat than man) find more dead bugs to eat. Mostly dead moths that are stuck to loose boards on the side of the house, or in abandoned spider webs. The creature eats more of the wood than the bugs, just chewing on it, as he holds it like an ear of corn.

Walking back to the front yard, his friend/caretaker person tells him it costs too much to feed him and he has to make some money himself if this is going to work. Bat-guy sits down on a bench looking rather dejected, as he stares down at his feet with his hands in his lap. I go up to him, pat him on the back and encourage him, "You'll be able to do something to make money, don't worry."

He looks up to me as if saying, "Like what?" but with just his eyes.

I answer, "You could always give massages to people" and we both start laughing. I see a smile return to his beak and hope in his eyes. "I didn't know you could understand me" I say, amidst more laughter, just thinking about this bat-guy giving people massages... He nods understandingly.

Waiting in line to be assigned a weapon as I am drafted into a medieval war. I am given a stick with a big spiked ball on top of it. Down the line, they give me a leather cape, and that's it. "What am I, cannon fodder?" I think as I realize how vulnerable I am like this. Not nearly strong enough to wield the mace, even running through bushes would scratch up my skin...

I walk off, and wander around some grassy hills with a few sparse trees. I see one of my friends with her boyfriend both sitting under a tree and having a good time. I say "Hi" as I pass by, letting them enjoy themselves without interrupting too much.

I follow a road that goes up a hill, along a small cliff right across from another half hill, half cliff area. There is a guy shooting mortar rounds at me. But I can see the angle of his mortar pod, so it's really easy to dodge. He just rotates as he changes his aim, but doesn't actually move. I have an energy cannon type thing that also shoots like a mortar, but needs to be charged with each shot depending on how far I want it to go. I time my shots to be in between his, and get closer and closer as I fine tune the charging and my aim as I dodge and shoot from different spots along the cliff. He almost gets me a few times, but it is really easy to dodge. Finally, I get a hit on him, but it hardly hurts him at all. He laughs at me, completely unconcerned. But the joke is on him, I can do this all day.

Then, a nuclear missile lands just to my right. The sky flashes white, and the blast wave knocks me down to the ground. Then everything starts to burn. Must be the radiation. I see a glowing orange smoke slowly spread toward me. Some of it touches my legs and holy crap does it burn! I run to get out of it, and can barely stay ahead of it as it spreads. Down the hill, the smoke does not follow me. Spared just by a thread from dying in that explosion, I am now so weak and injured that I am pretty much useless. I look around for some place to sleep this off. Walking away from the action toward some sort of building that is up a hill, I think that'll work just fine. Spontaneously, someone performs a type of magical healing ritual on me, and I feel back to full health again! I swing my mace around, and it feels easy and comfortable to do so. Now, what to do about this nuclear explosion?

I stand before a mighty king, surrounded by his advisers. We are all in front of a small wooden building, surrounded by strong stone walls, all sitting atop a tall plateau in the middle of a desert. There is a woman next to him who appears to be some sort of necromancer. I talk to her, and am able to receive visions of exactly what the surrounding area looks like. It seems to work by flying my field of view radially outward in a straight line at any angle I wish. I spy to the West, and see not much but sand. Snapping back to myself, I do it again, but a little South-West this time, and see a giant cave, with a huge demon beast guarding it, and some sort of portal inside. There are smaller demons surrounding him, and the whole area sits in a large crater with a tall ridge around it.

Suddenly, I am teleported to the edge of the sandy crater. Terrified of these demons, they are much stronger than I am, and I have no ability right now to fight them, I try not to get too close. Still curious about what else is around here, I look around, and peer over the top of the crater's edge. A giant half boar, half human creature wielding an axe spots me, and starts jogging in my direction. I turn to run, and see the woman who summoned me here just floating ahead of me, about 10 ft above the hot sand, smiling with a mischievous grin as she watches me run for my life. She gets the attention of a few giant animated skeletons, and sends them to attack me as well.

"Clearly, we have been deceived by her, as she is helping these demon creatures more than us." I think, as I run for my life back toward the stronghold. She morphs me into a wolf so I can run faster, but then casts a spell on me, that slows me down even more so than I was going before. Cackling with her head back as she does so, she slowly floats behind me, amused by my struggle. Still determined to make it to safety, I push on, and will myself to still be faster than my pursuers.

It works, and I manage to climb up a rocky cliff next to a waterfall, out of reach of the skeletons and boar thing. They don't seem to want to climb at all. The waterfall is coming from a river that flows through the stronghold, so this is a potential entry point to a safer location. I sense that my mom would want me to just climb back down, and use the side entrance gate, but that seems too risky with those beasts down there. Plus, this looks like an easy climb. I see that there is a 2 ft wide ridge, one side - a raging waterfall, the other side - a steep plummet to death. Stakes being a little high, I play it safe, and crawl forward on all fours, hugging the ridge as I make my way up.

The going gets much steeper, and I have to climb more than crawl. Still pretty easy though. Then, without warning, the waterfall surges strongly, overflowing the side of the cliff bank that I'm climbing on - nearly knocking me off. I pull a few boulders loose as I struggle to hang on, and hear them crash down the cliff, breaking other rocks away as they fall. The surge dies down, and I climb onward. One hand in front of the other, I pull myself up the edge. The incline lessens to about 60 degrees from horizontal as I near the summit. Right when I feel like I've made it, another massive surge comes out of no where, stronger than the last. I hold on to what seem like strong hand holds, but they pull loose from the ground. My footing also breaks loose as the water pushes me back. Determined to make it, I push my hands deep into the sand, up to my forearms, and hold myself in place.

The water, now covering me up to my shoulders, I feel very precariously stuck in this spot. Barely able to keep from being pushed down to my death, if I life a hand or a foot to make any forward motion, I will not have enough traction to keep myself in place against the force of the water. A woman in the stronghold sees me, and runs to get help. Two young kids walk up to me. They look like they're between 4 and 6 years old. The girl is dressed in a red dress, and the boy is wearing all blue. They just look at me calmly and smile from the grassy flat plateau just above me.

I feel my grip start to move in the sand, and know that help won't be here in time. I kick myself forward, using just my calves, and claw by just flexing my fingers, and in this way, painfully make slow forward progress. But it works! Another big wave of water hits me, but I continue to crawl forward and make it, cresting the ledge to safety.

The kids immediately take the form of West Highlander White Terrier dogs. They wear vests of the same color they had on before: the girl in red, the boy in blue. I recognize them now as enlightened beings, and thank them for helping me find the strength to survive and make it to safety. I hug the boy, and he bites me in the face, one of his teeth pulling at my right eyelid! I recoil, turning away and stepping back. I hug the girl dog, and she is much nicer, wags her tail, and licks me. I pet the boy dog, and he tries to bite me again. I don't understand why yet, but I still know they're enlightened beings and are helping me in some way, even if I can't understand it yet.

I walk up to the main stronghold area to where the king was before, and find him talking to the woman from earlier. He seems to now be aware that she is a spy, but is planning to use her for scouting the nearby terrain anyway. He tells her that she must explore the Southern and South-Eastern coasts of the huge island we are on. I watch as he gestures to the particular areas on an animal skin map, that is divided into named zones. As he gestures to it, new zones appear. He tells her, "Also, make sure you go South, to Dakota. Not South-Dakota, but New-Dakota, which is just North of Dakota." On the map, a glowing green line of light appears, outlining two new Dakota areas, one of which is then labeled as "New Dakota".

Unexpectedly, I drift off to sleep. Still thinking about work, I see the back room, a few pallets, and blue crates and boxes on the pallets. I walk toward them to move them around and wake up.

In a sandy environment, not much green anything around, I am with a few military people and we suddenly come under attack by people who have their faces and heads covered with big thin scarves. We are behind some sort of make-shift wall, with a few sand bags on top, and return fire. Outnumbered, about 30 to 5, we're not that confident we'll survive. Huge rockets and mortar shells fall from the sky nearby and explode, sending one of us flying through the air.

I look to my right and a massive space ship takes off, but drops the main thrusters too soon to get to space. It flies back and forth across the sky overhead. At least 3 times, it passes by, not that far off the ground. It looks like someone is using it to escape the conflict here. The shooting stops, and we are briefly left to prepare for another possible attack. We're too few, and too poorly equipped to venture outside of our defenses here.

Walking into a walled off back-yard type area, I look for a gun. There are a lot of single shot rifles, but I'm looking for one with a big magazine capacity. I find one, but it shoots smaller caliber bullets. Well, it'll have to do. I also look for more mags, but only see 1 extra. I load them fully. A little strange how they are all squishy like they're made of gelatin. I can force more bullets in, but they squish around and look like they'll jam the gun, so I take a few out until it looks like it'll work smoothly. Then I look for a hand gun as a backup. I see a few on a table, and then notice a rather large hand gun, with a forward grip on it, almost like a sub-machine gun, but more so a hand gun. A little bigger than what I wanted, it looks like it'll do the trick, so I attach a sling to it and swing it over my shoulder, making sure to load it fully, and grab an extra mag for it as well.

One of my friends tells me that these guns don't use the same ammo as everyone else. I'm okay with that, I'll just have to scavenge ammo from the bodies of our attackers if I need it.

I take my defensive position again and notice there are some local people setting up their mobile food cart right in front of us. I walk up to them and tell them it's not safe to be here, and they have to move it further away. I walk back, and notice they only moved 10 ft to the right. So I return, and tell them to move further! They argue about it and I tell them that if there's another attack, our attackers will no doubt use their truck as a place to take cover, and we'll have to shoot everyone in it. They must move further away. They still don't want to move, so I raise my voice telling them, "You will be shot if you stay here! I don't want to shoot you, but you are in the line of fire, and you have to move!" They listen, and move out of sight.

Walking back toward the main wall, I end up in a tunnel where people are training to be extra tough. Rather dark in the tunnel, streaks of light come in through an air vent on the side, leaving most of the room in a dark blue color. Some guys are hanging from spiked ropes that they grabbed onto, and someone shoots live rounds nearby. Accidentally, one person is shot in the leg and falls off the spiked ropes. Everyone is hanging at the end of the tunnel, where there is a 30 ft drop over some sand. I run over that way, and jump down the hole, landing in the sand below. The guy is alright, and still really happy with the training. We both grab onto some of the bottom spikes on these long ropes, and pull ourselves off the ground.

A friend and I are chased out of a Tibetan village by angry men trying to kill me with rocks and sticks. We run down a trail through the woods, straight into an old WWII tank, shooting directly at us. The tank shots don't go through big trees, but get stuck inside, and then explode, completely obliterating the trees. The same happens with rocks that we try to hide behind. We turn and run through more of the forest, off of any trail. Two people on a dirt bike are riding through the woods opposite of us, and 100ft to our right. I quickly drop to the ground so they don't see us, but they do. The person on the back of the dirt bike has a fully automatic rifle, and what appears to be lots of ammo.

We take cover behind some huge trees. I can see through one of the trees, and notice the rifle being aimed directly at me through the tree. So I crouch down as a bullet grazes my back, burning and tearing some of my skin off as it passes. This motivates me strongly to find safety from all this chaos. My friend and I run to a rope-bridge that crosses a large chasm, but soon find that we are now surrounded, people who want us dead on both sides of the bridge.

I kneel down, and draw a symbol I've never seen before, looking mostly like a 4. As I draw it, I say something about "We will be safe". It glows a bit. I trace it again, saying the same words, and it glows more. I repeat that a third time, semi-aware that we will be shot in a matter of seconds here on the bridge. The symbol glows brightly, radiating light all over, and I am immediately transported to Hell!

Standing on an invisible energy floor in the middle of a ring of gnarly floating rocks, glowing red and on fire, this whole mass just floats far above what looks like the ground level. Lots of other flaming / glowing rocks float around, most are massive, the size of multiple cruise liners. There are stone bridges and passageways leading from one to the other. I feel safe here, because I doubt any of my attackers would actually go to hell, even if it was just to kill me.

I seem to be alone in Hell, no one else around. All I hear is flames, and the creaking of really hot rocks. It all looks quite amazing. I walk down a rock staircase to a lower level, and find myself face to face with a massive demon. About 15 times my height, very thin, his feet and hands are massive blades, and he appears to be completely composed of strong metal. He steps on me, cleaving me in two rather effortlessly. Instead of dying, I find myself in one piece again nearby this same beast. Mostly still feeling happy to be free from those people shooting at me, I'm not afraid of this demon at all. Sensing this, he walks away disappointed. I walk along a rock path, either side of which is a vast expanse of molten rock, glowing bright orange and yellow, gently undulating as it flows around. I come across another giant demon beast. This one looks like a combination of a pit-bull, the incredible hulk, and a giant boulder with massive spikes on it. This demon is bulging with muscles and thick, rough skin, mostly black, but glowing red in the creases. Kind of the texture of a massive tree with big chunky tree bark. He has big spikes on his shoulders, and lots of pointy fangs, sort of drooling as he growls at me. Since I went to hell to be safe, I'm not afraid of him. He charges me, and I just watch to see what happens. He bites me, eating the top half of my body. Everything goes black for a bit, then I re-materialize right in front of him again, just watching curiously. He too gets discouraged and leaves. They seem to only enjoy mauling me when I'm afraid.

I explore around a bit, taking in the massive mountains of glowing spikey rocks, and rivers of magma. The whole ambiance of this place is a rather soothing red/orange/yellow color. I find it pleasing to my eyes.

I then wake up to my room being only a degree or two below body temperature, and I've sweat through everything. A similar temperature perception to the dream.

Trying to go to hell, I manage to find myself in an old, abandoned mental hospital. There are a few zombies around, so I lock myself in an old dorm room so they can't distract me. There is a medium sized hole in a wall, with a metal cover blocking access to it. If I can get through there, surely hell will be on the other side. I have exactly the tools I need to take the cover off, and begin working the screws loose. There are 7 hex screws, with one torque screw in the corner.

I notice a food elevator in the corner. I peek inside and along a series of mirrors is a person looking back at me! I duck and try to hide from view, but she saw me.

Some non-zombie people come in, and tell me it's not safe here because of the zombies outside. They try to convince me to join them and move to a safer place. Also, they are serving dinner right now, and I'd be just in time for it. They start to help me pack up my stuff into bags that they have with them. Really preferring to check out hell instead, I tell them that I'd rather eat in a few hours, and to just lock me in here until then. I'll be safe. They aren't thrilled, but agree to do this, and leave me in the dimly lit, damply cold dorm room again, with its stone walls, and tile floor.

With the cover now off, the hole is too small to fit through. I decide to just fall asleep, and then I can fit through any size hole because I'm dreaming. I have a few hours so this should be easy.

I lay down on a wooden plank used for beds to fall asleep and wake up.

Getting ready to embark upon a lengthy trip with no apparent limit on the duration, my mom asks me, "Did you pack the camera?"
"No, I ran out of time... I didn't even have a chance to look at my list of things I wanted to pack. But I did pack the essentials." I think about if I had more time, I would have been able to pack much better for this trip. Too late now, I'll just have to make do with what I've got.

/// I interpret this dream to be referring to my preparations for what comes after this life. When that time comes, will I be happy with what I have prepared? Or will I wish I had made more time to really prepare well... Right now, I feel I've prepared enough, but still lacking in a lot of areas. Maybe non-essential, but nevertheless very helpful and nice. Well, me, get down to business!

Not sure if the camera is just a general symbol for having more potential preparedness, or if it is a specific symbol relating to the ability to share experiences with others.

Walking down a massively wide stair case, filled with everyone I know, and have known, all together. We are all registering for a really amazing festival of guided meditation and instructions for how to apply meditation to our every day lives. Everyone is happy to be here as we file through the registration area. There are a lot of Buddhist monks and nuns with us, but mostly regular people. Maybe a 1:6 ratio.

After people check in, they go to where they are staying, because it is a multiple day long event. One of my friends is staying in the same building as the main event is held, another friend is right across the street. I see him walk to his room in a large hotel building, and tell others how close he is to everything! I have to specifically give detailed instructions for which building I am referring to, pointing doesn't do it for them. "Not the building on the corner, but the next one to the right. The tall yellowish one, directly across the street from us"

Then I realize I have no place to stay... I have not booked a room at all, and will soon need one. I'm okay with that, at least I made it here! Quite broke, I can't really afford a place to stay, so there's not much I can do about it.

Managing to find a relatively cheap room, about $50/night, I decide to hang out near registration and see if anyone else needs a place to sleep and will split the cost with me. I consider charging more than a fair split, but decide against doing so.

Outside in a large grassland, up against some low, rocky mountains. Not much around in terms of vegetation, mostly thin grass. My family is with me, driving in a jeep not on any particular road, just randomly around in the area. I hear a narrator describe how life is easier and less hostile in the more lush parts of the environment where things grow better. I notice a particularly vibrant area just next to the mountains over a hill that we pass by. "Wait, stop! Let's go over there!" I suggest, but my dad wants to go to a more desolate area. I see green trees with lots of leaves, and more bushes and things disappear as we drive down the hill.

Arriving at a really remote area, mostly sharp rocks and dirt, not even much grass, we all get out of the jeep and look around. It just feels more dangerous here, like any form of life has to be mean in order to survive in such a place.

Ironically, I find a play ground, and notice there is one of those parabolic whisper dishes that some new playgrounds have these days. Where it uses the giant satellite looking dish to pass small sounds great distances, where it is similarly received. Pretty cool stuff! I tell my dad what I've found, excited by the discovery. Unimpressed he tells me, "The whole world is basically like that, you just have to listen..."

I imagine the geometrical properties of the whole planet, and all the small parts of it, aligning in such a way that it is possible to hear anything from any distance if you can tune into it just right. Definitely much cooler than the limited dish I just found in the playground, even though it was operating with a distance of about 1km/ half mile between each receiver.

Literally dripping with sweat, wearing a sweat soaked T-Shirt, I am stocking the dairy cooler at work. I feel ridiculously warm, but also much relief from grabbing cold cartons of milk and other items. Feeling the wet condensation on the bottles, I let it cool me down as I work. I notice there is an attractive co-worker nearby working in the produce section. It's hard not to notice her, and I am aware of her presence. Mostly just enjoying her company, I try to fit everything from the cart into the coolers in the appropriate spot.

Waking up, it is 95 degrees F (35C) in my room and I am literally dripping with sweat... It was nicer in the dream working with the coolers.

Noticing pain in my hand, I look closer and see a splinter in my thumb. As I hold my hand, I also notice a splinter on the outside edge of my hand. Both on my right hand. Immediately, I grab my box cutter and begin to dig the splinter out of my thumb. I cut along the splinter as I usually do, but somehow the cut is just a hair off, and not helpful at all. A little unsure about how I managed to miss like that, I continue to scrape at it in the usual way. Careful not to scrape along the new cut I just made, it manages to seal back together like nothing had happened, only a little pain that is completely drowned out by the irritation from the splinter.

Worried that people will think I'm just being a slacker, I change my position so that I'm not laying down on my side across the desk as I do this. Now the lighting is sort of dim, so I go stand directly under a ceiling light for an easier view. Not getting the splinter out of my thumb yet, I decide to give the other one a go, and contort myself to get a good angle on it. Carefully holding the box cutter by the edge of the razor blade, I begin to rake at the second splinter to get it out. This one is much easier, and after removing some surface skin, the splinter flips over, and sticks out of my hand. I wipe it away with the blade.

Then I notice it's 9:40 and I'm already late for work! I'll have to finish the splinter removal later, and I run to my bicycle, dropping every thought of what else I want to do in order to make it to work as fast as humanly possible.

Yes, that stands for "Toilet Induced Lucid Dreaming"

These were rather subtle. I nearly missed them until I realized I was actually experiencing it and it was a dream.

- At work, a young guy Anthony is put in charge of supervising my work. He lets me do whatever I want, which is nice, because neither he nor the store manager really know what needs to be done anyway. The store manager returns later, and is unhappy with what I've done. She is always unhappy with everything everyone does, so this is to be expected. She yells at Anthony, and then he passes along the changes I have to make telling me, "I took the first one for you, the next time, I won't be able to keep her from yelling at you"

- I'm operating a fork lift, and do wheelies with it, getting the tines completely vertical.

Holding green onions, examining them and separating the freshest ones from the older bunches.

In the middle of a meeting of scientists, one of them says to another, "Now if you would, draw me a representation of the source of everything."

The other scientist picks up a piece of chalk and begins to draw a torus. Very accurately, and looking very 3 dimensional, the other scientists in the room nod in approval as he continues to draw.

Then I wake up to the falling sensation as my head slips off my hand.