spellbee2

I was in this giant Lego city. I don't remember exactly what made me lucid, but I was. I somehow remembered the TOTM, so I decided to get naked. My clothes suddenly disappeared. I went to go find a DC. I found this Lego guy that had an elephant head. I ran up to him naked, and he kept trying to look away.

Spoiler for Rated PG-13 for Nudity and Graphic Stupidity:

"Look at my penis!" I shouted. I then accidentally hit him in the face with my junk. He started running away. I tried to run after him to apologize, but he ran into his house. "Well, that's done."

I then couldn't think of any other intentions, so I flew away into the sky. I was very lucid, so I had great control when flying. I saw an airplane (still made out of Legos) above me, so I flew inside, only to find the pilot passed out in the cockpit. I think I lost lucidity at that point.

There's a gap in my recall here, but then I was playing this Pokemon game in the living room of my old house, where R and C were apparently living. I was playing on an NES, although the graphics were more GameCube quality. I apparently had to catch all the Pokemon and if I didn't do it in one try, I had to start over to get the rest. I was scared when I got to the end, for fear that the NES wouldn't save my progress. But then I woke up.

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 18

I'm currently heading back to college with my parents. I've discovered two things: (1) My dad speeds while my mom and I sleep, and (2) No matter how many naps I take in the car, I can't have/remember any dreams from those naps. I did manage to try the cycles in the 4-5 hours that I actually was able to sleep in the motel room, although I did not WBTB with it. I did have one kind of scary dream, but no lucids. Since I'm writing this about 18 hours after I woke up, I only remember this one scene:

I was driving around with my dad. We drove by my church, when in the parking lot we saw a couple cop cars surrounding my brother's car. We knew something had to be wrong, so we drove up to the scene. The policeman warned us to stay back, but it was too late. We saw what the commotion was about - a crazed lady (who looked like a mixture of my high school math teacher and Mr. Yang from Psych) came out from behind the car and looked straight at us. I yelled at my dad from the back seat to turn the car around quickly, but it wouldn't start up. She ran around to the side of the car opposite me and ripped the door open. She looked like a maniac, as bloodthirsty as a zombie and as strong as a werewolf (or at least that's what I remembered thinking). She said something to me that I don't remember, but I didn't want to hear it. I tried to kick her out of the open door, but my kicks hardly moved her. My dad finally got the car working and drove off. I continued my kicking, finally making some progress. Instead of falling out, however, she climbed over the top of the car and over to the other door behind me. I turned around and continued to kick with all of my might. I finally kicked her down to the floor, but I continued to kick and stomp in a fury of rage (I apparently have problems...).

So apparently that dream was so scary that when my dad shook my leg to wake me up, I woke up with a jolt and almost kicked him. So yeah, that was weird...

Day 18: LD - 0, FA - 0
TOTAL: LD - 15, FA - 13

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 17

(Again, I couldn't really find any time to try any SSILD's on normal time, so it took me an afternoon nap to finally get a chance to try it. I am dedicated to finishing this challenge, but it will definitely take longer than 13 days to finish the last 13 days.)

I woke up early for some golf with my dad (happy birthday to me!). I got back at 12-ish, got a shower, had 300 mg of B-6, and took a nap at 1. Got a semi-lucid one at first, and then I got really lucid after the FA.

I was working at the grocery store. This British mother and son asked me if we had any of this certain kind of dog food in the back. I told them that I would check it out as I headed through the back doors. I walked into this mirror version of the store that had all the items in backstock. It was like a version of the store specifically for the employees, as they had their own deli counter and everything. I walked to the aisle that the dog food was on. I looked on one side of the aisle where the dog food is, but I couldn't find it. One of the guys that works in the grocery department IRL (that for some reason hates me) walked by, and I asked him if we had any of that kind of dog food. He kind of yelled at me, saying like "If it's not on the shelf, then we don't have any." Although I was slightly perturbed by my coworker, I walked out back into the regular store, found the two customers, and explained politely that we were out of the product. I then walked back to the mirrored store and sat down by the deli.

I don't remember what exactly happened next, but I remember eventually I was falling down this hole at a fairly high speed. I was lucid, so I was kind of flying, I guess. I kept falling until I got to the bottom of the shaft and kind of gracefully landed. I was in some like "dream station". There was a kind of car in the middle of this turntable, and three tunnels with signs over them for different dreams. I just got in the car and took the first one. All of a sudden, I was running in this video game environment. I tried to run fast, like a Sonic game, but I kept running into walls and blocks I was supposed to jump over. I did get to this one part where I had to use a homing attack on these balls floating in mid air to move forward. I hit the first one, and then kind of lunged toward the second one (which I guess is my homing attack), then the third one, and so on until I got to right above the top of this like mountain. I held on to the last ball as it kind of lifted me into the air. Soon I was falling down the shaft into the dream station again.

I kind of flew for a little bit longer, but then I heard my dad calling my name. I woke up in my old bedroom, and my dad was naked in front of me. "Oh, gosh, dad, put some pants on, that's disgusting..." He woke me up to tell me to come downstairs. I got up, got dressed, and went to the bathroom. Something felt a little bit off, and so I wondered if I was still dreaming. I tried to lift myself off the ground, and sure enough, it worked. I flew downstairs. I walked out the front door to this kind of shelter (like they have in parks) where there was this party going on. I don't remember what the party was for, but for some reason I felt like I had to entertain the guests. I got this long stick and stood it up on the ground, and then tried to stand on top of it and balance. I tried 3 or 4 times, reminding myself that I was dreaming so I could do it. I soon realized that maybe I could figure out something else to entertain them. I stood on top of one of the tables and started flapping my arms until I started to rise off the ground. I flew around for a little to everyone's amazement. After I landed, I said "You think that's impressive? Check this out!" I then imagined having wings (growing wings has been one of my intentions for a while) and began flapping my shoulder blades. I again started to lift off the ground a little. As I rose, I saw a conveniently placed mirror on the wall, and I could see my massive, pure white angel wings on my back. I flew with them for a couple seconds, but then I woke up soon after.

Day 17: LD - 2, FA - 1
TOTAL: LD - 15, FA - 13

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 16

(Obligatory note about how I've missed over a week of entries because my sleep schedule's been messed up when in reality it's because I'm too lazy to get up early in the morning anymore...)

So I went to bed late last night and got up early this morning, but I decided this afternoon would be the perfect time to take a lucid nap. I took 300 mg of B6 before I went to bed about 2 pm. Although I laid there until about 2:30 after doing the cycles, I finally got to sleep, and kind of had my first ever WILD, but without the lucidity (WID?). Like for the first time I watched the HH until it kind of popped into a dream scene, but for some reason I wasn't lucid right away. I guess that counts as success, but anyway...

I started out in some kind of video game kind of like Banjo-Kazooie, in that it was an open world but I had to complete missions to collect some special tokens or something. The missions had me going to various places, like my brother's apartment, my dorm room, and some weird island. After this, my boss from work was leading me to some place (my two dream signs are work and video games, and BOOM here they are in the same dream, and I'm still not lucid yet...). However, along the way, he leads me into this warp point that takes me to some secret area for some secret mission. The only problem is that I've already done the mission, apparently, so I remember mentally hitting the back button several times to get back to the main world. After the second or third time, my boss finally turns around to me and says "Maybe I should stop running into those things, huh?".

He finally leads me into this mall, and I find myself lost in the middle of JC Penney. There's tons of people around. I don't remember what, but something about the scene makes me lucid. I take a few moments to realize that I am dreaming, and therefore this is a dream - nothing is real (something I seem to always forget in my lucids...). I decide that I want to talk to my dream guide, so first I decide to thin out the crowd. I yell out "There's nobody here." I call it out a few times, and each time, there seems to be less and less people until soon the store is empty. I then decide to summon my dream guide, which I determined from an earlier dream is a gray-haired wolf-like creature. I call out his name several times, expecting him to be right around the corner, but he never comes. One time, however, I think I see him around the corner, so I run around to find that it's just a furry gray purse (doh, so close...). I finally decide to abandon that track and just have my first talk with my subconscious. I yell out that I want to talk to my subconscious. I yell this several times, but find no one. I see this tall shelf in front of me, so I decide to climb up to get a better view. I take kind of a Superman-ish leap and jump on top of it (that was easy...). I look out, and I see the busy mall beneath me.

Suddenly, someone taps me on the shoulder. I turn around to see this guy that kind of looks like a younger, more buff Christopher Eccleston (aka the ninth Doctor, aka the Doctor that was in the only episode of Doctor Who that I've ever watched...). All he says to me is that I should get out soon as he points to a door down on the ground. I ask him if he is my subconscious, and he says something like he is my "pre-subconscious", but he can help me get to my subconscious, but first I have to run. There's this explosion on the other side of the mall, and all of a sudden water starts flowing from the source of the explosion. I was apparently not on the shelf anymore since I don't remember jumping down before I ran towards the door he pointed out. He kind of ran with me some of the way, but we got separated when I got to the door. I saw some of my friends outside, and they called me over to where one of my teachers was sitting with his car. I got in and we drove off to the beach.

I was suddenly in my swimsuit, apparently, and I walked to the water. Before I got there, though, the guy I talked to in the mall walked up to me and stopped me. He introduced himself to me as C44 (pronounced "C-four-four", yeah, I don't get it either...). He walked me over to this group of people by an umbrella. He introduced me to these other people, 2 guys and one girl. I don't remember any of their names, but they looked like partying college kids that go to the beach to get drunk on Spring Break (aka the kind of people I don't hang around with IWL...). C44 introduced me to one last guy, a guy who didn't look like the others, but kind of acted like them. He looked like a 40-ish year old guy with the hair of Wreck-It Ralph, although he was still fairly well-built. C44 told me that his name is Amplitude, and he's my subconscious (great, my subconscious has a 90's street name...). All of us just kind of hung out for a little bit. I kind of felt like I was the most awkward person in that group, but they seemed to accept me anyway, although part of me felt that it was more out of pity than actually liking me (you know that friend you hang out with just because you feel sorry for them? It was kind of like that...). I ended up talking to the girl for a while, although we just kind of had small talk about where I was from, what college I was going to, what I was studying, etc.

After a while, I think I was either bored or felt too awkward, so I told them I had to leave. C44 came over to say thanks for coming by. I thanked him instead, and went to hug him (TOTM!). He seemed okay with it at first, but I figured that wasn't the reaction the forum wanted, so I continued to hold him for a little bit. His smile slowly turned into this look of confusion, until he finally said something, so I was like, "I'm just messing with you. Thanks for the Task of the Month." He laughed. I walked away and the dream felt like it was slipping away.

I woke up on the couch in my living room. I looked at the clock and saw it was 7:00. Shoot, I didn't want to sleep for 5 hours, I thought. But, then the scene went dark.

I woke up again, this time in kind of storage shed/garage. I got up and saw Amplitude standing in front of me, which made me lucid. He didn't say much - he kind of just stood there for a bit. "Are you really my subconscious?" I asked. He nodded and said, "Ask me anything." I froze. In all my effort to just try to arrange a meeting with my subconscious, I never actually thought of a single thing I wanted to ask him. I kind of thought of a question on the spot, but I thought it was stupid and just suppressed it. He just kind of laughed. "Can't think of anything, huh? Shall we watch the tape, then?" I turned around to see this little projection screen set up in the corner. I guess I was embarrassed of watching any tape of myself, so I decided a stupid question was better than no question. "How do I know if I've found the right girl?" I could've facepalmed myself. He kind of chuckled. "I can't answer that for you. You have to find that out for yourself." I found myself backing up for some reason. There was some ambient noise that kind of got louder, so I couldn't hear the rest of what he said. The dream kind of destabilized, and I woke up in some hotel room. I realized that wasn't right, but soon I woke up for real. I looked at the clock and saw it was only 4:00, which was a relief.

This one was a nice, long, pretty cool lucid dream, but I still feel like I missed several opportunities, but whatever. Still pretty cool.

Day 16: LD - 2, FA - 3
TOTAL: LD - 13, FA - 12

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 15

(So I missed a couple days... yeah whatever...)

I went to bed at 12:30 and woke up at 5:45. I did the cycles a little different. I did the first 3 or 4 sitting up, and then laid down to do the rest. That way I would get at least some cycles in before falling asleep. Sure enough, it worked.

I was in a large grocery store, kind of like Sam's Club or Costco. I think I finally realized that being in a grocery store is a dream sign ('bout time. All my dreams are either about working at a grocery store or video games...), which is what made me lucid. I didn't really take the time to stabilize the dream since I was just flying all of a sudden. The way I flew was kind of weird. I was standing up straight but continued to move forward, and when I kicked out my feet to the side, I turned in the opposite direction (kind of like ice skating). I tried at one point to lean forward and fly Superman style, but I just started to stumble, so I just decided to go with it.

After a few minutes of flying, I woke up in this zoo. My friends M and J were with me, and we were in front of this giant tarantula exhibit. Like seriously, the tarantula was massive, about the size of the average dog or cat. As we watched, it broke out of its cage/box thing and came after us. We ran to another part of the zoo until we got to a dead end. I began to wonder if this was a dream too. I plugged my nose, and sure enough, I could breathe through it (although it took a couple tries to get it right...). I told M and J that it was okay since we're dreaming. "Great," M said, "but how do you explain that?" He pointed to the spider as it came around the corner, seemingly bigger than it was before. I was still a little scared, but I said, "It's okay, there's an exit right over there!" We all turned around, but there wasn't an exit like I said there would be. Maybe this isn't a dream, I thought. Soon after, though, I woke up.

I got some more flying time in, but then failed miserably at the second part of the dream... Oh well... I'm still somewhat happy with my results after reaching the halfway point of the challenge.

Day 15: LD - 2, FA - 1
TOTAL: LD - 11, FA - 9

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 14

(I missed two days, one because I got up really early and one because I went to bed really late.)

Went to bed a little after 1, got up at 5:45, and went back to sleep at 6:00. I woke up at about 9:30. There was one lucid dream followed by a non-lucid, but since I had to be at work at 10:45, I didn't have time to write them down or type them out. And since I just got off work, this is the first chance I've had - 10 hours after I woke up. In other words, I don't remember a lot of the dreams.

1. I was at some party at this big house. I only remember two scenes. In one, I was in this bathroom covered only by a towel. I looked at where I thought the mirror was, and there were two girls looking towards me from the other side of this apparently long bathroom. I wrapped the towel tighter, making sure to cover my, um, private parts... The second scene was my friend opening this refrigerator completely full of Caprisun. Somehow that made me lucid. I didn't try to do anything right off the bat. I just wanted to become more lucid, so I tried doing RC's and focusing on my senses. Unfortunately, I either woke up, had an FA, or the dream went black.

2. I was at my good ol' grocery store that is in every dream that I have, except this time it looked different. The aisles and departments were in the same general area and format, but the ceiling and walls were really high, like at Home Depot, and the aisles and speedways were really wide, like at Walmart. It was closing time and I was supposed to mop, but I also had to take back one of the electric handicapped shopping carts. I dragged the mop head behind me as I drove down each aisle with the cart.

Day 14: LD - 1, FA - 0
TOTAL: LD - 9, FA - 8

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 13

I went to bed late again, about 1:30. I set my alarm and actually woke up at 5:45 (I usually try to do 5 hours, but I was too lazy last night to change the alarm time...). However, I quickly fell asleep without doing the cycles (I'm getting really bad at the commitment required to get up early for this...). I do remember one dream and one fairly long fragment from last night, even without any B6.
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1. I was back at my high school for my first day of the new year, and I was trying to figure out my schedule (I have at least 5 or 6 of these dreams every year starting in July...). English was my first class, but I had some lady other than my actual English teacher in high school. She seemed a little crazy, giving us assignments that were more designed for elementary students. I don't remember what my second class was, but I remember that afterwards I went into the hallway, which looked like the walkway of a bowling alley. I was looking for my schedule in my backpack because I didn't know what my next class was. After searching a couple folders, I finally found the schedule and saw my next class was Physics (technically, the schedule called the class "Discovering Physics", which is close to the name of the textbook for my actual physics class next year, "Mastering Physics". Just an interesting tidbit...). I ran off to my next class.

2. It was starting to rain outside. I was stuck in the parking lot, so I ran to this red van which had the side door open. I tried to press the button to make the door close automatically. Instead, the door kind of slowly closed one section at a time (kind of hard to explain, like the bottom part of the door lifted up and went in place, then the next part kind of lifted up from underneath and went above the first part). The whole process took forever, and it started to rain before the entire door came together. Instead of the last section going in place, however, the door kind of malfunctioned, and this kind of handicapped ramp on the outside of the van pushed down, lifting the side of the car.
---
When I woke up at about 8:15, I had a hard time getting up. I finally just kind of forced myself up (by rolling off the bed...). I figured it would be fine if I performed the WBTB then. First thing I did was take 300mg of B6 so it would be absorbed by the time I actually went to sleep. I sat up playing solitaire on my phone for like 45 minutes (yeah, really... I was bored...). I then laid down at a little after 9 and performed the cycles. I got through about 4 cycles before I fell asleep again. And, oh boy, this was a major false awakening-fest...
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I'm pretty sure the dream just started with a FA right off the bat. I woke up in my bed, but I was backwards in my bed (my feet were on my pillow and my head was where my feet usually are.) The wall I was looking at looked really off. I tried to get up, but I was kind of stuck to the bed. The dream started to destabilize (I think), but I just kind of laid there for a while making sure I didn't move. I again woke up in a bedroom, but it was my old bedroom*. My dad came in to wake me up for breakfast, so I kind of pretended to be asleep. I felt him sit down on my bed as my side of the bed rose up a little, although a lot more than it should have. Again, the dream went dark. I woke up a third time in the right bedroom, but everything in the room was flipped. I knew this was wrong too. My brother came in just as the dream went dark again. I woke up again in my old bedroom backwards in my bed again. My phone was vibrating, so I sat up to check it. I tried pressing a button to turn the screen on. I could see the screen show something, but the backlight wouldn't turn on so I could see it. I finally grasped that I was dreaming. I was able to get up finally and stood in the middle of my bedroom. There was stuff going on outside my door, but I did my best to ignore it.

Right before I went to bed, I was reading Hyu's dream journal and was fascinated by this post about persistent realms, so I thought I'd give it a try. I imagined myself leaving this dream made by my subconscious so I could get to the real worlds outside the dream. I kind of felt my body relax, and before I realized what was happening, I was falling backwards. I fell right through the floor into darkness. I continued to fall back until I got to this small planet that looked like a level from Super Mario Galaxy. The "planet" kind of had the general shape of a cube, but several parts were missing, making a long walkway around to wherever I was supposed to go (the Power Star, probably...). Before I could even start, though, I actually woke up thanks to my loud mouth parents downstairs yelling for me to get up.
---
I looked at the clock and saw it was only 9:45. It did surprise me that all that happened in the span of about 30 minutes instead of the usual hour and a half that it takes me. I was really surprised and happy that I had such quick success with Hyu's technique. Granted, I wouldn't exactly call it a success, but it was a lot more progress than I expected so soon.

Day 13: LD - 1, FA - 4
TOTAL: LD - 8, FA - 8

*My brother got married and moved out in December, so I got to move all of my stuff into his room, which is slightly bigger than mine. In my dream, I woke up back in my old bedroom down the hall from my current bedroom.

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 12

(Note: This should technically be day 13, but yesterday I didn't do the cycles, although I did have this pretty cool LD.)

I went to bed really late, like 1:30. I woke up at like 7-ish to do the cycles, although I got about half way through. I remember one fairly vivid dream.

I was at some house on this fairly big island. I was driving this strange vehicle. It had a propeller on top like a helicopter, but was basically a pole that hung down from the propeller and a platform underneath to stand on. I was driving this vehicle up this mountain for some reason. The thing couldn't exactly stop on a dime, so it was hard to control, and once or twice I was afraid that I'd fall off the edge of the cliff. I drove this vehicle around until I got back around near the house. For some reason I transformed into Sonic the Hedgehog (I was playing some Sonic Adventure 2 before I went to bed...) and found I had a surfboard in my hand. I ran over to the swimming pool of the house, which was actually one of those surfing pools that just has jets that make one continuous surfable wave. I surfed for a few minutes before I woke up.

Day 12: LD - 0, FA - 0
TOTAL: LD - 7, FA - 3

Taking a break from the SSILD challenge (mainly because I fell asleep last night before I could do the cycles, but I still had a LD) to share this amazingly terrifying yet still pretty awesome lucid nightmare I had last night. Probably one of the most memorable dreams I've had in years.

The dream started with kind of a commercial for Home Depot talking about all of the services they offer, like free delivery and haul-away, and "the knowledge and expertise to get things done" (not sure if that was actually there, but I know that's on the real commercial...). The final scene of the commercial showed the parking lot of Home Depot. In a very cinematic transition, the logo, phone number, and other info at the end of the commercial faded out as I walked towards the store. I was heading there to get my dad something for his birthday. The store wasn't like a normal Home Depot where everything was inside. Instead, all the products were outside under different tents that said "Hardware" and "Plumbing" and all the different departments at Home Depot. I went over to the hardware tent to find something that my dad would like.

I walked through a few aisles until I finally got to the back of the tent where I saw my mom and dad also browsing. "Great," I thought, "now my dad will see what I'm getting for him." I went up and talked to them, and we talked as we walked down another aisle or two. I then realized that the two of them were handcuffed together. "What are the handcuffs for?" I asked. Neither of them answered my question, but instead they walked away like they didn't even hear it. As I looked around, I realized that all of the couples were handcuffed together. I didn't understand what this was for, but it didn't seem to be right (or legal), so I decided to investigate.

I snuck in through a large sliding overhead door into the employees only area. Inside was this big room with several cargo storage containers in a row towards this larger part of the room that extended out like a very large warehouse. I decided to get on top of the containers so I could get a better idea of where I was. I got on top of the first one, and then ran from one to the next towards the large room. After about 7 or 8 of these containers, I heard this robotic male voice say something like "Crushers Initiated." I saw in front of me a large spiked crusher flattening each cargo container. I assumed that the cargo containers would be moving towards the crusher at a slow pace, which would give me plenty of time before I had to get off. Then I saw a second crusher crush the next container, and soon more and more crushers worked their way towards me, quickly picking up speed. I turned around and ran as fast as I could from one container to the next trying to outrun the crushers. I jumped off the last one just in time and fell onto a large conveyer belt. I heard the robotic voice say "You're not getting away that easily." I then saw a crusher at the end of the conveyer belt, and I was rapidly speeding towards it. I quickly rolled off the side of the belt before I got crushed. There was then a flashing red light and a siren. I expected people to come after me, so I ran in the first door I could find to get away.

Little did I know that I had just set foot in an elevator. I turned to try to go back out, but the door had closed and locked. I was in this small room, when suddenly the wall opposite the door turned into a large screen. The robotic voice seemed to have a sarcastic, biting tone to it (kind of like a male GladOS) as it said, "I hope you feel proud of yourself. Because of your negligence, 26 people have died." The number 26 appeared in big red numbers on the screen. "Now comes the fun part," the voice continued. "I'm going to ask you simple yes or no questions. Answer any of them right, and I let you go. My sensors can also read your fear, which will cost you dearly." I felt my blood pressure rise, and there was suddenly a buzzer as the elevator car quickly dropped. After a while it stopped, and the voice said. "We're now 10 floors down. I'd advise you to keep your cool, as there are only 100 floors." The first question came on the screen. I don't even think I got a chance to look at the question before the ceiling started to close in above me. I then heard the buzzer again as the car dropped again. This time it took me much longer to get under control as the ceiling continued to come down. I was pretty much on all fours before I pressed my answer on the screen.

The ceiling stopped. The elevator screeched to a halt. "I did it," I thought. The voice then started to laugh. "That is so incredibly wrong," it said. The entire screen went red. "And now, due to your ignorance, 64 people have died. I hope you're happy, you incompetent fool." The buzzer sounded and the car started dropping again. "He's playing with me," I thought, "This can't be happening." I had a whole psychological battle with myself for about 15 seconds as the car continued to descend. "I have to get out." I decided to try to wake myself up by blinking really hard and willing my eyes open. Then I realized, "Wait, if I'm lucid enough to know I can wake up, then I'm lucid enough to control this dream."

"Wait, what?" the voice said. I felt this surge of power go through me. I was the one in control now. With heroic strength I pushed the ceiling back up. "Stop, what are you doing?" I reared back with all the power I could muster and punched through the door of the elevator. The doors flew back as sparks flew. I ran into the hallway, where there were now flashing red lights and a loud siren. I ran down the halls (which looked kind of like the halls of the Death Star) towards any exit I could find. The computer wasn't giving up without a fight, though. Two turrets suddenly came out of the walls and started shooting at me. I watched as the bullets bounced off of me. I was invincible, and there wasn't anything that could stop me. I took out all of my anger and rage against this demon computer as I punched the turrets so hard that they sailed down the hallway and exploded. I ran further until these two electrical nodes came out of the walls and shot electricity at me. This time it didn't so much hurt as somewhat paralyze me. I fought against the paralysis enough to punch the wall next to me. I hit so hard, all of the electricity in the entire hall started to falter. The lights kind of flickered as I ran down the rest of the hallway.

I finally got back to the room I started in with the crushers and cargo containers. As I ran towards the open overhead door, I heard the voice say, "Lockdown in 3, 2, 1..." The door quickly closed just before I could get under it. I punched one last time, knocking the door off of its tracks and leaving me enough of a hole to escape. I continued to run, not stopping for a second to look back. The tents that were outside were gone - it was now just an empty lot. I ran for the far end of the parking lot, which had a hill that led up to the highway. The "adrenaline" started to wear off. I started to feel less rage and need to trash everything and more calm and happy that I escaped. I ran towards the hill and saw these rusty metal rungs leading up the hill. I climbed these until I got to the top of the hill, and then the scene went white and I woke up.

So yeah, that's probably the first time I've had a nightmare have a happy ending. It also seemed to end almost perfectly too, with a great sense of closure. I should write a book...

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 11

Went to bed late: about 1:00 am. Because of my recent recall drought, I took 3 B-6's before I went to bed. I decided not to turn my alarm on, but because I've been doing this for 10 days now, I naturally woke up after 5 hours, giving me a chance to do the cycles. I woke up about every hour after that, and each time I started the cycles but was unable to complete them. I remember one non-lucid dream and two dreams that turned lucid for a short time at the end - not enough to pull off my intentions, but enough to get some flying time in...

1. I was in the main building at my college. There was a long staircase leading upwards to the higher floors, and for some reason the bookstore was on the first floor. I was walking through the bookstore when I saw one of my friends that just graduated browsing through the shelves for his textbooks. I asked him why he was there so early - the new students weren't supposed to get there until Wednesday (which is true IWL - I have to be there on Sunday, August 11, because I'm one of the student leaders on the hall, the new students get there Wednesday, and the returning students get there Friday). He said he decided to get there early to take a look around.

2. (This may be a continuation of the previous dream) I was in a large hallway outside of a convention room. I don't remember how, but I realized I was naked (except for a strange backpack). I ran into the bathroom to hide, but as I got through the door, I realized that it was just a dream. I turned around and walked calmly out of the door. I took off my backpack and didn't care that I was naked (yeah, I know, that was last month's TOTM...). Although I got a couple looks, no one seemed to really care. I ran outside to this little balcony and saw some of my friends from college on the ground below. I wondered what it felt like to fly naked. I took a running start and jumped off. Although I had kind of a sputtering start, I finally got going and flew off, even doing a flip in mid-air. Before I got too far, however, I woke up.

3. I was back working at the grocery store. It was fairly late at night, but we still had a few customers. For some reason, there was a second receipt printer hooked up to the register. I tried to attach it back to the machine, but it still didn't look right, until I realized that the second receipt printer shouldn't even be there. I disconnected it, but it kept printing. I knew it was too old to be wireless, so something had to be wrong. That's when I became lucid. The next customer asked me to run back and grab something from the back. I jumped up and flew over the aisles and back to where the item was, and then flew back to the front of the store to deliver it. I flew past several customers on the way, but nobody really paid attention. I gave the customer the item, but then my manager asked me to take a damaged item to the bin in the back of the store. I flew back again and went through the doors to the back. I searched for the bin for 2 or 3 minutes, but couldn't find it. Then I woke up.

Like I always seem to do in my LD's, I went along with the plot of the dream instead of breaking free and making my own story. I always try to remind myself to stop what I'm doing in the dream and just ground myself to become more lucid, and yet in the heat of the moment in the lucid, I always forget. Still, got a few good lucids tonight, so I can't really complain.

Day 11: LD - 2, FA - 0
TOTAL: LD - 7, FA - 3

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 10
(Note: This should be day 11, but last night I fell back asleep before I even started the cycles, so I decided not to count it. I don't even remember any of my dreams that night anyway...)

I went to bed about 12:30 and woke up at 5:45. In order to keep the night before from happening again, I got up, went to the bathroom, and played games on my phone until about 6. I then fell asleep just before my final cycle.

The only thing I remember is that I had a dream. I don't remember any part, aspect, scene, emotion, or anything about the dream - just that I had one. My theory is that I'm having one of my recall droughts that I have every few weeks where I go from remembering 1-2 dreams a night to remembering about 1-2 a week. Hopefully, this will only last a few days, maybe a week, but in the mean time, I think I'll take some B-6 to bring my recall back to normal levels.

Day 10: LD - 0, FA - 0
TOTAL: LD - 5, FA - 3

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 9

I had to be up early this morning, so I didn't set my alarm for five hours after bed (although I woke up then anyway...). I did have one dream where I was working at the grocery store (I worked 10 hours there yesterday, what can I say?). I don't remember much more than that. After all my daily activities, I took a nap at 4:00 pm. I tried to do the cycles then, but I fell asleep pretty quickly. Fortunately (and unfortunately), my mom called me and woke me up at 4:30. I managed to do the cycles this time completely, and finally, after a 4 day drought, I had an LD.

I was at some sports training camp (which is weird, since I don't do sports at all...) with my older brother. He was trying to train me to be less of a pushover (pure sibling motivation...). He kept shoving me, telling me to stand up and fight for myself. I suddenly became somewhat-lucid. I rubbed my hands together to stabilize the dream. I built up all the power I could will and shoved him back, and he went flying several feet backwards. Suddenly, the scene changed to the gymnasium of my high school. My brother was back up off the ground and said something like, "Now you're ready." I walked out of the gym and apparently hopped on some car like Mario Kart. I was racing down the road ("racing" doesn't necessarily mean fast...) towards the other side of the school. At like 2 or three parts of the "race", some of the buildings were kind of alive (like in the movie "Monster House") and flying over the track in some sort of pattern trying to keep me from getting by. I remember being terrified each time I would approach one and feeling a huge sense of relief after passing it safely.

I soon came across this guy from my work (who happens to hate me for no reason, but I digress...) who needed help transferring all of his bags of groceries from the bed of his truck to the back seat of his van, which was already mostly full of plastic bags already.* I began by taking out the bags two at a time and setting them in the van like I usually do, but then I realized this would take much too long. I said to him, "I'll just throw the bags in there. After all, I have the most accurate arm in the world." I then proceeded to throw the bags into the car (something I'd probably be fired for if I did in real life...). Although my throwing motion felt weird, every pitch went exactly where I wanted it. I soon got tired of this as well, so I continued to throw bag after bag over my shoulder without looking until the truck was empty. I then shut the door of the van and drove off in my Mario Kart again. Once again, the flying buildings tried to stop me, although this time they had a slightly different pattern.

I remember waking up, although it was in a strange place (I think back at my high school). I got up and went to the bathroom, but I was kind of disappointed since my LD was over. I didn't want it to end, so I did an RC just to make sure it was over. I plugged my nose, but I could still breathe through it. I was back in the gym of my high school at the water fountain. I think I went outside and got on my stupid Mario Kart again. Once again, the buildings tried to stop me, this time seeming more human and less pattern oriented. I pulled around to the football field and stopped. As I walked out to the field, I felt the dream destabilize, and I soon woke up.

Although disappointed that I completely forgot all my LD intentions, I was excited that I finally broke my slump.

Day 9: LD - 1, FA - 1
TOTAL: LD - 5, FA - 3

*This was actually very similar to a real scenario I had at work yesterday. There was a family on vacation that bought three carts full of groceries (~$500-$600 worth). It took two employees (me and one other guy) to help them take out their groceries and load them into their car. There was no room up front, so we had to fit everything into their very small trunk, which was already somewhat full of various items. And their groceries included two 24-packs of beer and 8 12-packs of soda. We were literally cramming groceries in every space we could find. This is possibly the most specific real life scenario that has been replicated in my dreams.

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 8

Because of my recent failures in lucid dreaming the past few days, I decided to take 2 B-6's - not enough to induce an LD by itself, but hopefully enough to boost my recall and help my SSILD work better. I went to bed at 12:00, but I couldn't get to sleep until at least 1. I woke up naturally for some reason at 4:30, and then my alarm went off at 6:30, which was ridiculously stupid since I set it for 5:45. I'm 100% sure that it was my alarm going off, and I did an RC when I woke up so I'm sure it wasn't an FA. It has no snooze function on the app I was used (or at least it was disabled for that alarm), so it actually kind of pisses me off that it screwed up like that. I laid there until about 7:15 with no sign of going to sleep, so I just gave up. I do remember having 2 non-lucid dreams, but I didn't bother to write it down, so I completely forgot it... The other one was technically a fragment, but whatever.

I was in the studio audience of a 90's episode of Family Feud, hosted by Kathy Griffin (don't ask me why...). The entire set was red carpet, red seats, red everything. I was walking backstage for some reason, when these two ring girls walk out from the back door. I kind of paid them no attention and went through the door.

My failure is really starting to get on my nerves. It was even worse tonight since I couldn't even get back to sleep when I wanted to. I know it's common to have a dry spell, but this is kinda ridiculous...

Day 8: LD - 0, FA - 0
TOTAL: LD - 4, FA - 2

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 7

I went to bed at 12:30 and set my alarm for 6:00. When my alarm went off, I woke up, but I soon fell back to sleep before I could even do the cycles. I did have one dream, but my recall was shattered by my parents barging in my room at 8:30. Here's what I remember:

I was in some city with my college pastor and his wife. I think it was like Germany or something, but I don't remember. I was carrying around this massive iPad/tablet computer that was the size of a small flatscreen TV and probably about 20 pounds. We went into some water park, and as they went on this one ride, I decided to stay outside so my tablet wouldn't get wet. /*Gap here*/ I was playing/in some game like Lego Island where everything was made of Legos. I had to fly some helicopter and shoot down this dinosaur.

After I woke up at 8:30, I tried to get back to sleep, but I found I couldn't - or at least I though I couldn't, because I then woke up at 9:30! Aggravated, I decided to stay up for an hour watching random YouTube videos on my phone. At about 10:20, I did the SSILD cycles and went back to sleep. I woke up at 11:00 with no recollection of a dream. Mad that I couldn't even induce a lucid after doing the napping technique, I got up stormed out of my room. I then woke up at 11:45. Yes, it was an FA. At least that's something...

Day 7: LD - 0, FA - 1
TOTAL: LD - 4, FA - 2

So I've decided to do a 30-day challenge of using the SSILD technique. I have experimented with the technique before with somewhat mixed success. So this time I'm going to use nothing but SSILD for the next 30 days and record how many LD's and FA's I get. So here we go:

Day 6

I went to bed about 12:30 last night and set my alarm for 5:50. I woke up, went to the bathroom, wrote some in my dream journal, and then did the cycles before I went to sleep. No lucids again, just 3 fairly long dreams.

1. I was watching this video about this new piece of gaming equipment - basically a helmet that read your brain waves and translated them into motion for your character. It seemed more like a Home Shopping Network segment, and it was hosted by John Anderson and John Henson from Wipeout. The segment showed this woman with a helmet that was connected by ridiculous looking wires to this small robot that mimicked her moves completely. I ended up watching the video twice, the second time with my dad, who asked stupid questions while it was going on, like "Why does the robot have lungs if it can't breathe?"

*WBTB was here*

2. I was at some hotel or convention center for this talent show that we have every year, Teen Talent. I was supposed to audition for piano, but I didn't have a song prepared. I figured I was just going to improvise something since I couldn't think of a good song to play. I remember seeing my drama instructor from church as well as some of my friends from church who were also there for Teen Talent. When I finally played for the audition, I played this Legend of Zelda piano medley that I've been working on IWL. It sounded good, but I don't know what the judge thought of it.

3. I had some friends over at my house. We were either watching or playing some game show in my family room in front of the TV. I thought the intensity of the game needed some sprucing up, so I decided to set up lights to help make it more interesting. I had Christmas lights, spotlights, can lights, and even some motorized lights that turn by themselves at my disposal. I had them all set up how I wanted it, but I spent a long time trying to figure out how to work the controls in the back. I finally figured it out, and the lights looked awesome, but then I woke up.

So yeah, 2-day drought of lucids. After the promising start I had with this technique, I didn't think this was going to happen. Don't worry, I'm not stopping. If anything, this failure's making me try harder.

Day 6: LD - 0, FA - 0
Total: LD - 4, FA - 1