SCPantera's Dream Journal

I was with a small group of people (probably about 10-15 people) and House. At first we were at some kind of bar or comedy club. One of the guys in the group called "The Goose", a skinny guy with a black t-shirt and short, black hair, was doing some comedy up front. Meanwhile House and I were arguing about something, and I got the impression that he didn't quite like me. After a while, House announced that we were going to have a race with two teams of four; we'd have four tasks to complete on the way and for some reason both teams had to carry a large orange net also. I remember thinking it was weird that the race had over a month and a week time limit when it would only take a few hours to complete. We started running, both teams of four plus the rest of the crowd plus House hobbling behind, first down a highway in the desert. At some point we veered off to the right onto a grassy patch. The first task was two soccer goal nets positioned rather close to each other with a soccer ball, the task was that we had to score four goals. My other three teammates were girls, the three of them carrying the net since I was a little bit behind them, and they got to the task first. They set the net down next to the goals and started kicking the ball; they scored three easily but accidentally kicked the ball around the side on the fourth one. As I got there, I stayed near our net so I could grab it and run a soon as we had 4 goals; I grabbed it early once but was reprimanded by House. The other team arrived as we were trying to work out the fourth goal. As soon as they got it, I grabbed the net, piled it up and tried to carry it over my shoulder as we ran down a path towards the next challenge. To make it easier to carry, I just put the net on my head to help hold it up and carry it that way, but I couldn't see very well. As we went, we passed an Arby's off to our left, I joked, "I should go through the drive through with this net." We went for some ways until we came to this building that looked like some kind of school. Inside we all rested for a bit while House explained the third challenge: a comedy contest (apparently somewhere along the way my team had completed the second challenge while I was carrying the net?). House opened a door that led to the stage of a packed theater. The other team was going first, and they had "The Goose". I was worried because I was the only person on my team that had any comedy experience, but I didn't have a routine prepared. Dream ended hereabouts.

My wife had a speech class in some far away place, so we drive there the day before she has to give a speech. In the hotel room, she writes a speech based on some poem, but she changes parts of it to personalize it. The next day I watch her give the speech to her class; later another student gives a different speech modeled after the same poem. We drive home, but I have my own class to go to where we're giving presentations. We're giving them in a room that looks like the newer gym at my hold high school. I'm sitting behind the stage with a few other people. Someone gives a presentation that includes a speech based on that same poem. I pointed out to someone that this was the third time I'd heard someone give a speech based on that poem (and though I can't remember them now, in the dream I was able to identify the poem's author and the book it came from). For some reason, I have my computer set up backstage and Miles is there with a laptop. I go to point out something on his laptop, but I accidentally hit the power button and it shuts down. It won't turn on again, but I notice a button on what looks like a small desktop speaker, so I press it and the laptop turns on again. I go back to my computer, but now it's acting weird. The operating system looks strange and corrupted, so I conclude it's picked up some sort of virus. I turn it off and take it home. I turn it on again, it looks better but it's still obviously infected so I boot up Norton (which hadn't booted up automatically). I let Norton start to sort things out and walk away to go do something else when the dream ends.

Little bit of bleeding here, I woke up dreading going back to my computer since it was infected, but it slowly occurred to me that my computer wasn't really infected in real life.

Got quite a good haul tonight; 3 decent-sized sequences that I'm going to split between two posts to denote a break where I woke up and wrote down some notes.

This first one may have been longer on the front end, but this is where my memory picks up: I'm living in a house with just my dad. I'm in the back yard enjoying the beautiful weather. I'm sitting at the top of a hill, looking at the sky. As I look back down, I notice the back yard is a mess, stuff is scattered everywhere and there is dog poop and urine stains all over, on the ground, and on the walls. I notice my neighbors' back yards are nice and neat, they're all separated into distinct sections by a short chain-link fence. I go inside and it's a mess inside as well. Pissed, I call for my dad, who shows up quickly. I yell at him for letting the dog shit everywhere. I tell him I'm going to go to the store and that everything better be cleaned up by the time I get back. I get into my car, but I decide instead of going to the store I'm just going to run away and live somewhere else. I try to plan where I want to go, I decide I'll fly to Alberta, Canada, then from there to Vancouver. I figure my dad might still be able to find me there and he'll be mad, so I decide I should keep going to Europe. I pick an arbitrary spot to land in Europe, so I pick Budapest (I had to check Wikipedia to verify Budapest is even in Europe and apparently my subconscious knows exactly where Budapest, Hungary is on a map; I should also note that my starting location was in southern California and as I was planning it I was seeing the path I was planning to take on a map with a line for the air route Indiana Jones style). So I go to the grocery store, which had an airport on its roof. I go up to the roof to get on a plane.

This dream may have transitioned into the following one; my memory of it starts (as I'll describe shortly) with flying as the previous one ends with it, and the sky in both situations was yellow as though it was dusk.

It's the future, but it's a zombie apocalypse. But not quite an apocalypse; there's pockets of humans living comfortably and there are quarantine zones. I'm at an airfield near a forest, learning how to fly (the airplanes are these tiny hover airplanes). I watch another student (who is Jesse Eisenberg of Zombieland fame) successfully take off and then do a couple loops in the air to show off. I do my own take-off and continue flying to explore. I wander into a massive city, only I notice that it's conspicuously abandoned (also note, the sky is now blue). As I continue, I suddenly realize I've accidentally flown into the quarantine zone, just in time to just barely miss getting hit by a raising camera bot with a zombie hanging off of it. Since it's the future, and there's some advanced technology, they use automated hovering camera bots to watch over the quarantine zone. However, sometimes one of the zombies would grab it, causing the hover blades or the bot itself to be destroyed, so to solve this problem they programmed the bots to fly up and continue flying up if they get grabbed until the zombie falls off. Looking forward, I see several more upward flying camera bots with random zombies hanging off them, some occasionally falling off. Though I'm filled with some dread, I figure I'm fairly safe up in the sky so I continue exploring. Some ways in I find a series of very large buildings that are completely intact. One of them has a large airport on top of it (what's with the airports on top of buildings in these dreams) and as I continue I can see into some of the buildings. I come to realize that this is some evil corporation who's trying to exploit the zombies. In some places there are crowds of people moving around normally as though they are busy at work and aren't in the middle of a zombie infested quarantine zone, but in other places I can where swarms of zombies are attacking people who are desperately trying to escape. There's places where it looks like there's a special forces team fighting zombies. Another place looks like a grade school; a nervous student answers a teacher's question but is wrong so she is taken to a closet and left outside, zombies burst through the door and attack the girl. At another classroom area, a student lures the teacher closer but then attacks them in rebellion so they can escape. The other students attack him too and knock him out, so they all flee. I find what looks like some kind of vent that's large enough for me to fly down into. I come out in a busy office hallway; the ceiling there is high, so I can hover above everyone's heads so most of them don't notice me. There an intersection, and nearby is a black guy in a suit who is apparently the boss of the whole operation. He's giving some sort of evil monologue. I continue to look around while listening; there's windows into labs where technicians in sterile suits are working on something. The boss guy's assistant has noticed me and is trying to get the boss guy's attention but the boss is too into his monologue to be interrupted. I start to head back the way I came to leave, but as I get back to the vent I notice it's been covered over. While I'm trying to figure out what to do, the boss notices me and approaches me enthusiastically, he shakes my hand and asks me how I've been and other small talk; apparently we've met before. Another guy comes up the stairs nearby, I recognize him as a supervisor that I had for a previous job and I'm worried because I know he'll recognize me and know I'm not supposed to be there. The boss waves him over and "introduces" me to him, then tells him to find me a room. After boss guy leaves, I tell supervisor guy that if he lets me in on whatever the evil corporation is doing I'll keep quiet and won't try to escape or anything. He agrees and we get on an elevator. Inside there is what looks like some sort of special forces team. One of them looks half-zombified and is wearing some kind of special suit. We get off on an abandoned floor, the team goes first and readies assault rifles so I assume it's an unsafe floor. I wake up hereabouts.

This dream may or may not have been longer, but here are the parts that I can remember.

I was living with my family again at our old house on Broadway, only there was also this other guy living with us who kind of looked like Gabriel Iglesias only shorter and not quite as fluffy. Anyways, I was in what must have been my brother's room (because A) it was really heavily cluttered and B) there was a scene coming up where I was in my room, which was different) and my brother was there too when Gabriel Iglesias guy came in and demanded something. We were both blew him off so he took out an uzi and sprayed the room; he didn't hit me at all but it killed my brother. Shortly, it cut to a courtroom where I was watching the verdict in the murder trial; GI guy was somehow found not guilty. So I wake up in my bed some morning after but I'm all depressed so I just lay there for a while. When I finally got up, I found my dad and GI guy in the kitchen packing up my brother's stuff. I asked if I could look through it for anything I could use (there was kind of a neat looking fan, and a lot of our old Nintendo hardware). As I started looking through his stuff, I said, "I know we didn't get along, but now that he's gone I kind of miss him." Then I broke down in tears.

Now here's the kind of weird part: I sensed something was weird, I guess probably from the emotional breakdown so I thought, "AM I DREAMING? REALITY CHECK!" But instead of doing a proper reality check I ended up just waking myself up.

Oops.

There was a little bit of dream bleeding with this one too. I woke up into reality trying to figure out how I could sneak some concentrated potassium chloride into GI guy's bloodstream.

So it seems the new mantra has a bit of a gaping flaw, and I suspect I know why. Namely that I haven't associated it with an actual reality check. I'll maybe fix this in the future, but for now this'll go on the back burner.

Despite starting my foray into the world of lucid dreaming in the late second week of August, it's already felt like a long road--though I'm already looking forward to a lifetime of practice. There have been some early encouraging successful results, but they are tempered by rocky outcomes towards the end of the month.

General Dream Content (This Month)
Number of new dream journal entries: 17
Number of documented dream sequences/fragments: 23
Number of lucid realizations: 3 (13%)
Number of significant lucid dreams: 1 (4.3%)

General Dream Content (Total)
Total documented dream sequences/fragments: 23
Total lucid dreams: 1 (4.3%)

Dream Signs (This Month)
Total identified dream signs: 37
Action: 7 (18.9%)
Context: 16 (43.2%)
Form: 8 (21.6%)
Awareness: 6 (16.2%)

Code:

0810-0811: Aw+1
0814: C+1, F+2
0813-0814: Ac+1, C+2, Aw+1
0815: Ac+1, C+2, Aw+1
0818-0819: Ac+1, C+2, F+2
0819-0820: Ac+1, C+1, F+1, Aw+1
0821-0822: Ac+1, C+1
0822-0823: Ac+1, C+1, F+1
0824-0825: Aw+1
0827: C+1, F+1
0828-0829: C+1, F+1, Aw+1
0829: C+1
0829-0830: C+1
0831: Ac+1
0831-0901: C+2, Aw+1

Dream Signs (Total)
Total identified dream signs: 37
Action: 7 (18.9%)
Context: 16 (43.2%)
Form: 8 (21.6%)
Awareness: 6 (16.2%)

Dream Sign Associated Lucid Triggers
Number of lucid realizations: 3
Action: 2 (66.7%)
Context: 1 (33.3%)

Code:

0821-0822: Ac+1
0829: C+1
0831-0901: Ac+1

Analysis: It's no surprise that the most common dream sign is unusual contexts. These often manifest as unusual situations, but also include a reasonable setting but an unusual sequence events therein. This highlights a definite need to be able to identify unusual situations for reality checking. It is, however, notable that Action-type dream signs seem to have more reliably triggered lucid dreams (if 2 out of 3 can be considered reliable); it's interesting that 2 out of the 3 lucid realizations involved my wife saying or doing something that I thought was highly unusual.

Other notes: I've been playing with different sleep mantras, trying to find a combination that helps. The initial one (which I'll list here shortly, it'll be the first one) helped a lot with dream recall, so I'm a little reluctant to drop it over concerns that it might dampen my recall; I'm also concerned that switching them every few nights might be dampening their effectiveness. I've been having trouble finding one for other aspects of dreaming that have the same subconscious impact. Here are some that I've tried:
"I will wake from my dreams and completely remember them."
"I will remember to realize that I'm dreaming."
"Tonight in my sleep I will dream."
In recent nights I've tried to combine them into one, long chain mantra (tried #3>#1>2 at first, but later found that #3>#2>#1 makes more sense), but it's been difficult and hasn't brought on noticeable differences. I would try to fall back on the first one when I got deep enough into sleep to not be able to concentrate on stringing three sentences together.
Last night I tried something new (and got a partial lucid to show for it):
"AM I DREAMING? REALITY CHECK!"
Short and to the point, and I suspect it'll be easier to impact into my subconscious.

I'd like to end by commenting on some observations I'd had with regards to the last few lucid realizations. I've noticed in dreams that during a nose pinch reality check, the sensation is such that I'm still able to breath but it feels as though my nose is a little bit stuffy/congested. During my second lucid realization I attempted to hold focus by keeping my nose pinched and breathing; as it dissolved back into reality I noticed that the sensation of breathing from the lucid dream matched up with the sensations of natural breathing in reality. So I wonder if the success of this reality check is related to or contingent upon clear, breathable nasal passages.

Had another lucid-for-a-few-moments-but-lost-it episode.

It started with a longer sequence for which I only remember some. I was with a few people whom I suspect were my parents (at least one of them was my dad) and we were in a car going to what was some kind of mall/fast food restaurant combination--it had a drive through window. We ordered and picked up...something, but we forgot to order something we needed so I got out to go into the store and get it while they circled back around to pick me up. When I came out, as I got into the car my dad asked, "Do you know what 'los loco lobos' means?" to which I replied, "The crazy dog."

Cut to me sitting in a theater watching some romance movie. It featured an Asian couple from New York City. The only part of the movie I can remember was a segment where the girl went into this long-winded monologue about how her boyfriend was so awesome because he had all these manly, rugged qualities because he was such a "Minnesota man", which I recall thinking was outrageously stupid because they were both from New York City.

Cut once more to me in bed; I would wake up, my wife would tell me something, and then I'd go back to sleep. This would happen over and over. At some point she woke me up and started reciting sappy lines from the romantic movie from before, and when she did so I thought, "Oh god, I'm in a nightmare now!" semi-jokingly, then did a nose pinch reality check which failed. Had a quick "Yeah!" moment, then got up quickly (thus far I'd been thinking my last lucid slipped away because I stayed laying down) to get to work. My wife was now babbling incoherently, trying to get my attention so I waved her away since I was planning to clear out my apartment as a start to environmental control practice. I started to head to the front door of my apartment to turn on the light (since it was still dark in the room), but the dream dissolved to awakening. Reality check passed; lost it again quickly unfortunately.

It's nice that I'm still getting lucids and that they seem to be occurring with a little more frequency, but I need to find some way to stabilize them.

Had another dream I was playing Starcraft 2 (I should iterate that I neither own nor have played the multiplayer thereof). I was playing what was evidently my first 1v1 with some guy that I may have kinda known. It was TvT and I was playing predictably newbish and sloppy, but it was a close game that came down to a base razing race that I won just as my opponent was attacking my command center. I noticed some unusual gameplay behavior; he was scanning around his base and I was able to see his scans as though they were my own, and when he started banshee harassing I switched to viking production and my first viking was produced instantly--seems my dream wanted me to win.

I was in some sort of human immune system MMO (I'm describing it as an MMO for the sake of description; the dream seemed to actually take place in vivo). I was a young lymphoblast fresh out of hematopoesis with everything to prove, wandering about trying to decide on a specialty. Did I want to live the short violent life of a natural killer, play it safe and be a long range nuking B cell, or perhaps settle on the utility of a T cell. As I was wandering there was a mission alert, and we were being sent to the stomach. When I arrived I could see what looked like a weird biological space battle; B cells were firing antibodies like machine guns at some pathogen I couldn't see because it was blocked by macrophages engaging it in melee range. Afterwards I was looking at the internet for more information on specialties and I recall being frustrated at the trouble I was having finding information that wasn't written by internet retards.

I'm evidently back in high school again, trying out for the annual play. It's some Sherlock Holmes play directed by Mr. Lucas, much to my surprise I end up with the lead role (I should note now after the fact that the fact I knew it was directed by Lucas should have been a red flag, he would never put me in a decent role). It's early in the week but I seem to think that the play will debut that Thursday so we're already in dress rehearsal and somehow I already know most of my lines (or am completely improvising them). My costume, heavily unfinished, is mostly large pieces of wool cloth held together by pins. As we get to the end of the dress rehearsal I line up at the end for the curtain call, but they wave me up to the front since I'm the lead. I apologize making my way up through the tight space--I'm not used to not playing insignificant shit roles. After my exit (I note a curious lack of Watson hereabouts), I hopped off the stage and left, eager to tell my dad about Fargo North High School's production of Sherlock Holmes.

It seemed to cut to what was either me in bed at home; I suspect I may have gone there from the school in the previous dream but it feels more likely that it was a false awakening because I recognized that something wasn't right (I awoke in a strange room that was clearly not mine) and did a reality check. I was lucid for a moment, I closed my eyes and kept my nose pinched to try to collect focus but it dissolved back to my bed in real life--my hands had clearly dissolved back to my real hands which were nowhere near my nose and additional reality check confirmed it. I guess I'll add it to my lucid tally, but it was disappointingly short.

I just woke up, and in my half-awakening I was in a combination of frustration at my mini dry spell and thinking about news footage of Yo-Yo Ma's death. Fortunately it occurred to me that Yo-Yo Ma was neither dead nor yet elderly.

The dream apparently consisted of what seemed like security/surveillance footage of a very old Yo-Yo Ma and another old woman who was apparently his wife, overlaid with what was either my own inner monologue or some sort of news commentary (or a combination thereof). The story centered around the fact that they, both wheelchair bound and frail, had entered separate hot tubs to relax, however once they wanted to leave, nobody would help them out of the hot tub (which seemed to be just a pit in the ground with no stairs or anything to exit). Yo-Yo Ma had apparently already died from being trapped in there with no help, which was what warranted the media buzz. Most of the imagery I remember was of his wife now having the same problem. Several people were standing outside the hot tub, refusing to help the old lady out. The hot tub had been drained and her wheel chair was there. She had a younger handmaiden with her, but she too refused to help the old lady out, though she would occasionally help her back into her wheel chair.

Inspiration for this dream seems to have come partly from the fact that we were working short-staffed at the retail pharmacy I'm on rotation at now last Friday, so I was able to hijack the radio for some classical music. Sometime during the day they played Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, featuring Yo-Yo Ma. For readers who don't know who this is, Yo-Yo Ma is a Chinese cello prodigy and, while I was still a classical musician, was considered to be the greatest cello player in the world.

I have a vague memory of what may have been a larger/longer, more complex dream, but all I really have of it is the memory that it may have existed.

Edit: Added that little explanation of who Yo-Yo Ma is for the curious. Also, taking this edit opportunity to add here that following this, since it woke me up fairly early, I tried to do some WILD (this would make it attempt #3, with the previous two being during late afternoon naps) but with no measurable success. I gave up after my wife shifting around a bit broke what focus I had left and just fell asleep normally, where I put a huge dent in my "dry spell" and experienced the following entry.

Another fragment/short sequence this morning.

I was with my family again and we'd just arrived at a restaurant for dinner. As we got out of our vehicle we notice we'd parked next to a really cool looking pickup truck that was painted all in gold. There was a post in the bed of the pickup on which was mounted a video camera, so I figured whomever owned it was using it to shoot movies. As we walked around it, the coolness was ruined slightly by the realization that it was only painted on that one side. We went into the restaurant; there was a line of people going up to the cash register at the front where we were to order, evidently. It seemed to be some sort of continental restaurant that specialized in seafood, but I couldn't decide what I wanted to get. There was some sort of bound ghost towards the front of the line that was trying to get my attention; it appeared as a woman with long, bright blond hair and pale skin, wearing a white robe. She was blindfolded and bound by several brown leather straps. I went over to try to figure out what she was trying to tell me, but I couldn't understand or make out what she was trying to say. I noticed there was a computer in the corner then I noticed some people whom I identified as friends outside the restaurant, so I went to see what they were up to. I talked to them for a while and then we went into the restaurant. I remember recalling that the layout of the entrance had changed some (and now I recall my family was no longer there, it seems as though I had gone to the restaurant with these friends now). We were still in line trying to decide what to get when someone told me that someone was sending me instant messages on the computer in the corner. I sat down to see what was going on, some girl (a nurse maybe?) was frantically complaining about how my mom had left the hospital (she's worked there for years in real life) and was sending other weird-looking messages. I was confused and trying to figure out why she was so upset. Dream ends around there at some point.

Again, parts of this dream were likely heavily inspired by last night, when my wife and I discovered there was a Golden Corral here and went to check it out. For the record, it was alright (not top tier) and had a pretty decent selection. Might be worth a return trip in the future. Wasn't a fan of the ambient country music though.

Edit: Additional notes, it feels as though I'm in a bit of a dry spell, though I'll admit it could be worse; I am still able to get at least some material for entries still. This certain relative timing of this morning's entry (i.e. Morning of X) comes from the fact that my wife's earlier alarm this morning woke me up earlier than usual without any dreams to record, though fortunately I was able to get a little bit more sleep and experience the above. I believe in my enthusiasm earlier this week following last weekend's first lucid dream I may have been trying to run before I could walk, so I'm returning my effort to push forward to instead focus on solidifying the basics. Meanwhile, I've been at least trying to ramp up efforts to pepper in reality checks throughout the day. We'll try to remain optimistic.

A couple super short fragments last night.

First, I seem to remember a still (?) image of standing on the corner of Broadway and...whatever avenue it was outside King House/Metro Drug, looking south down Broadway.

Second, there was a short sequence where I was working in kind of a medium sized room by myself on a computer against the far wall of the room. I was at what was evidently the Meritcare/Sanford downtown hospital. I was working on some sort of project. I heard some sort of commotion outside, so I went to take a look and people were hurrying about busily as though they were getting ready to evacuate. I stopped someone to ask what was going on and they told me the company was closing this area to save money. I shrugged and went down to the ground floor to leave. After I exited, I paused to turn around and look at the building's south face. I thought, "Time Magazine is going out of business because it's unable to appeal to any demographics."

I couldn't tell you why I thought the hospital had anything to do with Time Magazine, but it's likely that the thought was inspired by this: TIME Announces New Version Of Magazine Aimed At Adults | The Onion - America's Finest News Source | Onion News Network

The following recently occurred to me:
A) This dream journal contains absolutely no privacy options.
B) This dream journal now comes up as the second entry when you Google search for "SCPantera".
C) Several of my dreams contain fairly dicey information that, while I have no mind towards anonymous people on the internet reading them, would rather not have people I know stumbling across this journal.

Though regrettable, here's my plan as an alternative: I'm going to backup my dream journal entries on Word documents in my personal files on my computer and simply cross index the entries I'd rather not have public.

Edit: And done. I elected to leave a few racier bits that I don't mind being public too much and stuck with only removing a couple sequences I thought were downright embarrassing. Hopefully this will allow my dream journal to retain some entertainment value without being too risky.
I'm trying to decide if I want to put forth the effort to backup every entry. It would be a good idea, but may be time consuming.

A weird sequence, likely inspired with a chance meeting last night with an old FFXI friend as well as an unrequited mystery from those days as well as several related events earlier in the day.

There was an early sequence where I seem to recall a Starfox-style shmup that I can't place within the context of the rest of the dream.

It seems that I lived in some unfamiliar downtown location, and that members of my old TiamatsFangs FFXI linkshell were getting together in real life to do some sort of video game-esque covert operation. We were to try to get into some kind of factory, the entrance to which was on the roof of a tall building, to demolish...something. We went in, and made our way to the end, but my partners started dying as we got ready to blow up the place. There was some kind of weird monster/alien thing killing people. As I fled out I turned and saw it grotesquely kill two people. I managed to escape back onto the roof-entrance, the only survivor. Except it flashed back to before the operation began. Since I knew what would happen I began trying to prepare an escape route, cleaning up excess ammo, weapons, and items on the floor to make picking up things for use easier, however I became frustrated that my partners were sitting around goofing off instead of preparing for the mission so I gave up and left. On my way home I realized I could use the opportunity of the TiamatsFangs' gathering to track down Jillia. I had already called and talked to her at some point during the preparation for the operation, so on my way home I called her number again but she didn't answer. When I got home to a room that looked like some sort of home office I sat down and started to think about how I could proceed. I started looking through the contacts on my phone and noticed I had a second number for Jillia, so I called it. An older woman answered the phone; I asked her if Jillia was there to which she replied yes. I asked the woman for the location of this phone number to which she replied that it was a place called "The Dungeon". I thanked her and hung up to consult the internet for the Dungeon's location; I remember that the first time I searched for it I forgot to specify the city I was in (when I corrected it, I corrected it with Fargo, ND or 58102, so evidently this dream was supposed to take place in Fargo). I quickly found it online, it was some sort of arcade. I went there; inside I met the older woman I had spoken to earlier behind a counter just inside the entrance. Also there were several teenagers there, I thought it odd that several of the boys were shirtless--and also that none of them were playing any arcade games, in fact there were no arcade games at all. The area was mostly empty except for some furniture and beanbag chairs. I asked the woman if Jillia was there again and she offered to take me to her. As we slowly made our way back I continued to observe the bizarre behavior of the children here. The woman explained that Jillia was a poor girl, having been abused and I recall ending that explanation mentally by adding "by these people" to the end. As we reached the entrance to the basement, I observed a short, ugly-looking girl and a boy getting ready to have sex, and they were eventually joined by a second boy. I went down into the basement alone. At the bottom was a large room, the room was pitch black except where it was sparsely lit by a small television in the middle on the other side of the room. There was some kind of clothing rack blocking the direct path to the television, instead leading a path around the outside of the room. In the far back corner there was a green couch that was very brightly lit. I called out for Jillia and she answered, though I couldn't see her at all. I replied, "Now there's a voice I recognize!" She sounded somewhat paranoid however. She instructed me to go to the couch in the back corner. Standing in the light it was even harder to see into the darkness, but I sensed that she had moved from near the TV to around between me and the door. She instructed me to remove my pants and shirt so I removed my black coat, shirt, and pants and set them on the couch. She then instructed me to go over and play the game. I went over, in just my underwear, and sat down by the TV. There was an old school Sega console there with what looked to be some sort of hacked old school Sonic game. I picked up the controller and hadn't even started playing when I heard the door to the basement slam shut. Alarmed that Jillia may have ran off, I quickly got up and returned to the couch to put my clothes back on and try to follow her. As I was putting my clothes back on the lights came on in the rest of the room. The floor was concrete and the walls were painted a bland white, it looked for sure like somewhere people may be held captive and I recall thinking, "Aw shit, I'm trapped down here." I immediately suspected the bizarre people on the floor above of foul play. When I checked the door, however, it was unlocked so I went upstairs to leave. The teens that were there before were outside in the rain, apparently having fun and taking pictures of each other. I quietly left, trying not to draw attention to myself. About a block away I turned and looked back, trying to think of how I could find her now. The dream ends there.

Side note: with some more effort into reality checking around phones as previously planned, I might have been able to catch this one.

When my thoughts turn to last night's virgin lucid dream, I'm filled with a hungry excitement. It was an unspeakably amazing experience, so unique that I find myself regularly questioning whether it truly occurred but its my memory and my journal documentation of the event that are able to confidently quash such thoughts.

I'm ravenously reading up on techniques on this site related to improving dream recall and methodology for dream signs and reality checks. I'll admit that my initial interest in lucid dreaming was casual and my effort thus far had been less than perfect, however these quick results have convinced me that the outcome is more than worth the effort.

I leave tabs up with sections highlighted for quick review before I head to bed. These include:
Dreamviews Lucid Dreaming Community & Resource - Dream Recall
Focus your intent to wake from your dreams and remember them just before you lie down, and continue to repeat your intent to yourself as you approach sleep. Repeat to yourself over and over, “I will wake from my dreams and completely remember them.” If you find your thoughts wandering as you slip into sleep, reaffirm your intent. You want your last thought before drifting off to sleep to be of your intent to awaken from your dreams and remember them.
http://www.dreamviews.com/f74/dild-d...id-dream-9423/
(I AM GOING TO REMEMBER TO RECOGNIZE THAT I AM DREAMING.)
http://www.dreamviews.com/f74/lucid-...tutorial-1518/

Based on recommendations in the last link, on the 1st of each month I'm going to conglomerate a summary of the previous month's dreams to analyze for dream signs.

Although I used to consider myself heavily stoic and secular, with a certain amount of pride in how firmly attached to reality (I thought) I was, I'm finding it thus quite ironic how easy it is to question reality. I'm finding that (improved) dream recall is helping a lot with this; it hasn't gone unnoticed how there was some heavy "dream-bleeding" into reality I experienced a few nights back with the oh-crap-I-cheated-on-my-wife dream--I seemed to think the events of the dream had actually occurred for several minutes into my waking life.

I'd also like to remark on how easy I found dream control once lucid. I'm delighted that I was able to transition into it very naturally, though I imagine this was helped along by a confidence that this would be true. Another effort that I need to make going forward is to have something of a plan for each following lucid dream; last night I demonstrated a solid level of object control, next LD's focus will be more on environmental control. I was quite unprepared for what to do with my first LD. In my initial excitement, I neglected to pin down my environment and as a result there were some negative interaction between my environment and myself that served to shake my focus and concentration.

In closing, I wonder if this is what drug abuse is like. Being a stoic pharmacy practitioner, the last thing on my mind is using external substances to achieve euphoria or non-reality states. It's crude, irresponsible, uncivilized, and pathetic. Lucid dreaming not only falls well outside this dogma, appearing considerably more transcendent, but additionally it seems to have virtually no adverse effects.

“For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you long to return.” - Leonardo Da Vinci