Recent DJ Posts

13.11.2013

Dive from the Angel Falls. (L-DEILD)

NON-DREAM DREAM LUCID

I went from sleep paralysis into a second lucid dream.

I spawned in the same place I was before, but there were no sharks or anything... I was in the middle of nowhere.

I started to fly high and then, I decided to land at the Angel Falls. I did successfully and I was on the top of them. I could hear the noise of the water falls, even though they sounded like a shower...

I just jumped, head first al the way down through the falls. I went into the water fast and dove to the bottom of it. There were some treasure chests almost like the ones from my previous dream.

The very bottom of the falls was like the bottom of a pool... weird, but is what I found.

While I was underwater, I started to recall what else to do. I was sure I was required to do more things as usually the ToTY have multiple tasks, but I could not recall any. I thought I would fail this one due lack of memory. (Glad it was all I needed to do)

Since I had no idea what else to do, I decided to do another L-DEILD and chain a third dream and do another ToTY... but I realized that I have done a lot and I did not want to risk forgetting the whole thing, so just woke myself up successfully (no False Awakenings.)

Angel Falls!! Finally on the scoreboard for Task of the Year!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #119: Angel Falls

Wife and I are driving in a car through a field. Somehow, we believe that we're experiencing her brother's future and what will become of his life. The mood is relaxed and exploratory -- we're journeying with of a sense of curiosity rather than concern or foreboding.

I veer off on a path that goes to the left. "Not that way! The zoo is this way!" Wife grabs the wheel and yanks it back so that we're going straight once more. We follow this dirt path for a while before emerging onto a suburban street.

Somehow we're now pushing a big lawnmower rather than driving a car. The left side of the street is taken up by an angry-looking giant while the right side is littered with "doggy clean-up bags" that are filled with poop. Wife thinks that we should steer toward the poop bags and I think we should head for the giant because the poop will be too gross on the lawnmower wheels. We're not sure what to do, and as I examine the situation, I realize that this has to be a dream.

I'm slightly unclear on what happens from here, but I know that I was lucid for a good while, flew, found our 4-year-old son "E", and lost lucidity. Much later I'm walking through a train station with E when I remember how recently I was dreaming and realize that I still am. "[E]", I say, "I'm dreaming."

"That's a lucid dream!" he responds, and hops a little bit.

"That's right, buddy," I tell him. "Come with me outside. Remember that you can do everything that I can do." (I'm speaking to E, but mostly trying to remind myself.) I'm holding E's hand, and together we start flying toward the exit. A few DCs glance at us as we fly, but most ignore us. For no reason in particular, my flight momentum cuts out, but I focus on the street outside, thinking, We're out there now.

Now we're moving through the air again. I hear a DC shout "No!" and a hand grabs my ankle. For a moment this slows us down, but I think Bullshit, we're flying just fine... and right away we're moving perfectly again.

We land outside on a peaceful street scene. It's cobblestoned with no cars, just pedestrians. A river runs through the center of the road, running past the obelisk of a town square on our right, flowing toward a bay that's on our left. We follow the river, which grows broader and flows under a bridge before ultimately joining the bay. I decide that this river is perfect. This is the place where Angel Falls will be.

I turn back toward the distant town square and shout to the crowd: "This is Angel Falls! It's right here at the end of this river." And I unironically add, "Watch meee!"

From behind me I hear the thundering of a massive waterfall. Now when I look back toward the bay, everything looks strange. The original river is standing still, almost like time has stopped. But now there's a second, wilder river running right beside it. The bay has dropped completely out of sight, like we're at the top of a mesa. E and I fly over the calm river toward this new river and I can see it -- the top of an enormous waterfall! This is it!



I land close to the waterfall, realize that I'm no longer holding E's hand, and look for him. I want him to come with me, but I won't wait long. I'm too desperate to complete this task! Fortunately he's just behind me. "[E], hurry!" I tell him. "We're going over this waterfall!" He doesn't hesitate, scurrying up to the waterfall and leaping off in a clumsy-looking froggy posture. I plunge over the side, just behind him.

I'm freefalling now, soaked and yelling with excitement. I'm speeding toward a vast, green valley below me. I make no attempt to control my descent, move, or do anything apart from enjoy the sensation of falling through this curtain of water.

Suddenly I hit a pool of water below and instantly enter the void. I can still feel water all around me and for a moment I think about trying to reemerge. But no -- I did what I wanted to do. Time to wake up.

Pre bed: 100mg B6

Dream quality and recall: Dreams were vivid but recall was challenging due to the fact that I continued sleeping after the lds. It took me a while to journal the lds and by the time I did, the non-ld memories almost vanished. Still, taking into account recent busyness, heat and other distractions, I am very happy with the results.

Early dream fragment: It is the 5th of July and I am watching lots of fantastic long-lasting fireworks in the sky

Early dream fragment: I am doing dumbbell exercises, it feels really good

WBTB: Was very sleepy but made an effort to review the tasks. Said a mantra a few times, then fell deeply asleep.

Dream: I enter grandpa's room and discover that grandma has forgotten some kind of a diary she kept hidden behind the door. I wait until she is not around and peek in the diary to find out it is actually my diary. So, I had forgotten it in 2007 and she hid it and has been reading little bits ever since. This is terrible because this diary fully describes my views, plans, etc. I want to take it back home, but my mom comes snooping around, so I have to be careful not to attract her attention.

Fragment: I am with a classmate going to a class meeting. We stop in front of a building.

LD1: For some reason am in someone's store that resembles an outlet of a totally unknown brand. I spend some time checking out clothes, mostly interested in pink and purple ones. There is a cardigan I like but it turns into a net? Classmates are also there, I am trying to get their attention. A woman working in the store comes to bring us what looks like orange juice, but she claims it is beer. My whole class is gathered around something like a long table and we are having a drink. I first wait for everyone to get served but soon notice that some are already drinking. I feel drunk. Other classmates tell the story of a girl with the same name as mine, about how she lived in some city where women are emancipated. I think this refers to me, but later find out that they are talking about another classmate because they say her family name.

I turn to one of my best friends and say to her that we better leave the place and go outside. I am not sure what we did there but I am overly bold and become lucid. I turn back to all the guys from my class that have been passively following me and say some things to them I don't any longer remember. I recall how long this dream has been going and have very little time left, so decide to hurry up. The scenery around me is absolutely beautiful. We just left a lone building and there is only grass around, hills, trees. It seems like fall is just beginning, the colors are very pleasant to look at.

My brain is more asleep than usual and the only task that comes to mind after looking at the scenery is flying to angel falls. (which is so totally CL!)

I lift off and do some maneuvering that I can't exactly recall. I keep on flying over some fantastic hills, but I just feel this is going to end very bad because I have no idea where I am going and I am in the air for too long. (Also my expectation was set very deeply on a subcon level).

I decide to land and end up facing what looks like a small waterfall. There is water pouring over some rocks just in front of me. While I know this isn't what I am looking for (too small), I go as close as possible to this water falling down the rocks, trying to feel the water on me as the dream fades away and I end up in the void.

I spend some time in the void, just waiting there. (I couldn't remember any advice as what else to do, but that was fine)

LD2:It's a bit hard to remember what the first image was that I was looking at here but I am lucid from the start. It is an open area, with lots of vegetation again. I try three tasks, not fully sure about the sequence of but mostly likely in this order.

I look around and see some hills and trees in the distance. Once again it is all very beautiful and this makes me happy. It also reminds me that I was headed towards Angel falls. The vegetation makes it just perfect for the task and I stare there and day dream for a very short while. I feel like I want to rush forward and just get there. However, I just passed a few DCs and I remember I had another task I wanted to do "ask a DC".

I turn to this overweight mid-age woman and she makes some kind of word-like sound like "nah", I ask her where my phone is and she says "outside". This cannot be possible, as I know the phone must be somewhere at home, so I object and ask for further explanation. She says something else that I can't exactly remember but it means that this the answer. I am not satisfied with the answer she gave me, so I look around and there is another DC woman more or less the same type, but different face. I go to her and she makes exactly the same word-like sound like the other one, I find this very strange. I proceed to ask her about my phone and she just answers "but didn't you already ask". Well, yeah, but I want to ask again, and it is none of her business, just tell me where the phone is. I am annoyed with her and start some senseless explaining. After a while, I give it up and move on.

Still in the same place I decide to do the fireworks task and look around for some fireworks to swallow. The problem is that I am not in a room where my mind easily makes all kinds of objects but in the greenery and there's only grass and some small bushes there. I somehow remember I can do a summon from my pocket. I have the memory that my pockets are currently empty but still decide to search in my pocket. It is indeed empty but I manage to scrub something there, I hold my fist tight for a second and then I expect to see a mini-firework in there. Unfortunately, it is just a purple brown pill. I become confused thinking I really had this pill in my real pocket and that's causing the problem. Anyways, I concentrate on the pill, trying to make it look at least a bit like a firework but in vain. Somewhere after this intense concentration the dream fades.

I don't remember anything from the void here anymore.

LD3: I appear in some kind of public building restroom, still lucid, where I am looking myself in the mirror. I feel some pain in my tooth and have a closer look. Yeah, something is not quite right there and that worries me that I might actually have done something to my real tooth. I vaguely remember Penny talking about tooth dreams, and try to ignore the issue. Yet, I keep on checking myself out in the mirror until I zoom in to see and feel my entire row of teeth in a painfully twisted position. Dreams can really get crazy, I think to myself, remembering how Checker's fingers were twisted or something like that.

Finally, I brake my teeth fixation and walk around, trying to exit the restroom. Slightly worried that the dream might destabilize, although there wasn't an indication?, I decide to rub my hands and see if anything feels different. I remark that everything feels absolutely normal, and rubbing my hands on this occasion does not feel different from waking life. I also remember to jump a bit supposedly to stabilize, but it's more like some mischievous act of fun. I jump a few times, although cautiously as I don't want to destabilize the dream by losing the sense of my feet while mid air.

Trying to leave the restroom, I walk around in this building, but get lost in a maze of corridors. I go back, then try again and end up in some creepy looking corridor, lit by a single old bulb, shining bright. The whole place looks like from some kind a cheap movie scene and I don't like it at all. I don't want to be there. I get paranoid, staring at the corridor which turns to the left and soon some kind of a non-human thing is summoned by me.

Before he even has the chance to move closer I know that the only way out of this place is to phase through the wall in front of me and I do so.

I immediately end up in the void, but am still a bit paranoid that this thing might follow me into the next dream. I try to reason this whole situation, that he doesn't exist anymore, and feeling with certainty that once in the void, it is over. From then on, I remember to concentrate on Angel falls and on appearing on top of it. I do my best to create sensations that I am there.

I don't remember what happened, I just found myself in the next scene.

LD4: My memory gets even worse as I fall deeper into sleep. I am on the street, facing some building. My concern at this point is recall. I realize that I have been having dream after dream with no opportunity to journal. I try to remember how many lds so far, four, try to recall some details as I feel they will be lost. Using either my fingernails or some other object, I write down the number of dreams with a key word next to each to help with my recall once I wake up. This whole task is extremely difficult and towards the end of the process I begin to hear non-lucid dream thoughts interfering in my head.

Soon I lose lucidity as a Heroes of Might and Magic scene develops in the building in front of me. There are the two players' armies and obviously mine has been defeated because I didn't send reinforcements, while the other player did. The armies look quite 3D life-like with the largest beast looking quite scary.

NLD: Someone informs bf about his dentist and that some kind of refund is due because he did the dental work in a hurry. Tom Wilkinson is the dentist.

NLD: I am in a tram, there is a strange looking skinny old man in front of me. He is dressed like Gandhi, also has some kind of flat drawers on his chest, as some sort of a medallion. We talk for a short while and unfortunately I can't recall more detail anymore.

Soon the dream ends and I am in my body semi-conscious and extremely sleepy. For some reason my physical body decides to change position, so my legs move. This is what wakes me up a bit more and I decide it is better to journal before I forget everything.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #118: Water Slide

I'm walking down the central aisle of an airplane when I hear a voice to my right: "Hey [CanisLucidus]! Check out this view!" I look to my right and NewArtemis is waving me over and pointing at the window. "Have you ever seen Los Angeles from the air before?"

"[NewArtemis]!" I take the middle seat and say something about the last time I flew into LA. I talk about how it's been a long time since I was there and ask her what she's doing in LA.

"Same thing you are," she says. "The gymnastics conference." I feel like this is totally unexpected and don't know how to respond. Why don't I remember this? Since when do I care about gymnastics? Art points out the window again. "Look, that's the Staples Center!"

As I'm checking out LA through the window, a flight attendant makes an announcement that the plane will be landing shortly. Art stares at me pointedly, not saying anything. "Am I supposed to be doing something?" I ask, not following what's going on.

"Are you just going to leave your son all by himself while the plane lands?" Now I'm sure that my 2-year-old son "R" is all by himself several rows back. Panicked, I run toward the back of the plane without saying goodbye. When I get back to my row, I see some guy in the window seat and R crawling around freely on the middle seat. The guy turns to me and says something odd, and I wonder whether this is all a dream. As soon as I ask myself the question, I know the answer.

I look out the window again, and the plane is on the ground now. Passengers are starting to stand up at their seats and in the aisle. I stand up in the aisle myself and say, "[NewArtemis], come back this way. I'm going to Angel Falls." Almost immediately she slips past some guy standing in the aisle and appears near my row. I start narrating partly to her but mostly to the dream itself. "Okay, this plane took us right to Angel Falls." We walk through the doorway of the airplane and down a short set of stairs covered by a canopy.

"Can you fly?" I ask her. But I correct myself: "You can fly." And she floats past, bouncing along the canopy ceiling before reaching the end and floating up temporarily out of sight. Now I hear the roar of a waterfall and I'm feeling really excited. I start flying, too, and I wind up bouncing along just like she did before I break out into the open.

The waterfall is there, but it's really just a waterpark slide sitting on an open stretch of runway. The ride's about 30 feet tall, quite steep, and looks like fun. It's got a banner stretched over its exit with its name... something like, "_____ Raging River _____", with a couple of words I can't recall. Art and I fly over to the top of the slide, me just slightly in front. It's 4 "lanes" of slides right next to each other, and I take the 2nd from the left. I think that Art wound up further behind me in the same lane. I reach the bottom, zooming past a couple of portly kids in lanes #1 and #3.

As soon as I hit the bottom of the slide, I hop up again, expecting Angel Falls to be in front of me. And indeed, in front of me is the top of a huge waterfall. This one's got a banner stretched over the top of it, too: "Angel Falls". But it's still some kind of ride, not the real waterfall. It's close. A very impressive, realistic (almost scary) ride, but still a ride. I shout something back to Art about how this probably doesn't count. She says something I can't remember and indicates she's still here.

The dream still feels really stable and vivid, but I'm reluctant to waste any time, so I leap over the waterfall feet-first. Immediately I'm drenched and in freefall. After a few seconds of that, I land smoothly on some kind of big, steep plastic slide and travel along it for maybe another 20 seconds before things flatten out just a bit and the slide takes me underground. I'm still moving at a good pace but no longer at the crazy speeds of before.

The slide flattens out and broadens, and I slide past a few other riders that I'm sharing the slide with. When I feel myself slowing down, I find that I can sort of spin on my butt and gain a little speed. One DC that I pass asks me how I'm doing this and I tell him that I'm having a lucid dream.

After a while, the slide narrows and finally ends. There's a long line of DCs waiting to exit the "ride". I think about whether I should wait in line, then remember that I need to still find the real Angel Falls. I'm thinking about how to do this when the dream ends.

This one was a lot of fun, in large part because it was the first time I managed to really modify terrain in a major way. I still can't believe that I fell for the last false awakening, especially after catching the others.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #117: Carving the Coasts

I'm standing on a bus, blathering some false memory to the other riders about how a friend of mine was on an episode of Friends. I suddenly realize that I've missed my stop by miles, we're in the final bus terminal, and everybody's getting off. A middle-aged bald guy hands me a bunch of coins, including a JFK half dollar and a weird coin with a hole in the middle of it, and announces that he's paying everyone's bus fare. I hand the coins over to the bus driver, who takes them all. Once we're outside, the bald guy asks for his change and then berates me when I say that I gave the driver everything.

I feel like an idiot and everyone's staring at me, so I slink away and walk outside, wondering how I'm going to get home. On the corner I see a gang member carrying a pistol and wearing a blue bandana face mask. He jumps out from behind cover and starts firing at some unknown enemy. I think that this must be a really bad neighborhood and that I'd better get out of here. I look up at the sun to figure out which way is east, but notice that the sun's too low in the sky for the brightness of the day. The sun self-consciously moves higher in the sky to match my expectations and I realize that I'm dreaming.

I'm walking by an apartment complex with a little playground filled with grade school kids. I start flying to look for Angel Falls and one of the kids says, "It's Superman!"

"That's right!" I say, and start "bah bah baahhh"ing the original John Williams Superman theme. I decide that I want to hear the real thing and immediately my subconscious produces the original soundtrack (or close enough to convince me, at least.) I fly off, the Superman score playing in my head and filling me with nerdy confidence.

I come to a broad river with some low hills along the water's edge. I fly along the river until I come to a coastline, proceeding along that for a while, looking for Angel Falls. I start eyeing those low hills and think about whether I could turn them into Angel Falls. As I do this, they start growing taller, and I find that I can raise and lower the height of these hills just by thinking about it. Something seems to stop them from getting up to full mountain height, but I can still get them high enough to impress myself, at least. I keep flying along the coast, building the hills taller and watching as the occasional small waterfall even erupts from the side. These waterfalls are all pretty modest, though, and not nearly high enough for Angel Falls.

As I'm happily traveling down the coast and raising the hills up to the sky, a group of elderly people that look like tourists start flying in front of me, way too close, and blocking my view a bit. The tourists are pointing at the hills and reading some kind of guide book, and disturbingly, one of them is only wearing a diaper. I maneuver past a couple of them, but the old man in a diaper won't get out of the way. I say, "You want to land," and he immediately banks to the left and drops out of sight. Satisfied, I continue flying and trying to make the coastal hills climb higher and higher. I can't get enough of watching this! As I'm raising one set of hills really high, I start to see water cascading off of it, and I think that it's going to turn into Angel Falls. As I look up and up, my perspective suddenly clonks onto its side and I'm pitched into the void.

I rub my hands together to make sure my dream body's ready to go, then I try to find the floor. I imagine my hands rubbing against the smooth rock of a river bed, but the sensation I feel is different. More like cloth. Soon I can see out of my left eye, but only in a small circle. Right eye's still blind. It looks like I'm laying facedown on our comforter -- false awakening. It's morning and I'm alone, laying across the bed.

I get up and check myself in the bedroom mirror. I've got a bunch of blankets and sheets and stuff wrapped around me. I put my arms out so they can fall to the floor. I look just like myself except that my eyes are filled in with black and these dark wisps of smoky electricity-looking stuff are crackling around my head. Overall effect: badass. There's still something wrong with my right eye, but I just tell myself that the blankets are gone and I can see fine. Pretty soon, I do.

There's a new door in the wall of our bedroom, and I walk through it into some kind of sunroom. (This is strange since our bedroom is on the 2nd floor.) My friends "Leroy" and "Leroyette" (husband and wife) are here working on some kind of art project with a bunch of strangers. Everyone's working away with scissors, paper, and cloth. I call out, "[Leroy]! I'm having a lucid dream."

"Here, let me get the door," he says, undoing a bunch of strange locks on an external, glass-paned door. I step outside and there's a small waterfall, about 15 feet high, going in a small garden. I'm wondering how to turn this into Angel Falls when the scene goes dark right before...

I have another false awakening in my master bedroom. The door to the sunroom is still there, and I head through it again. There, again, is Leroy. This time I try undoing all of the locks myself. There are an unbelievable number of curtains, locks, and shutters covering the door, and I'm finding it really frustrating to mess with them. "I don't recall your doors being covered with this much bullcrap," I whine. Leroy chuckles and tries to help me. (Apparently I thought this was his house, but it doesn't resemble any room in Leroy's home.) "You know, I could have just phased this whole time. Sorry, man!" I phase through the door onto a grassy lawn, jump into the air, and start flying again. After flying for a short time...

Another false awakening, this time in the sunroom. Embarrassingly, this one fools me and I'm non-lucid. An overweight bearded guy in his 20s is dressed in a wookiee costume (sans head.) He's complaining about how girls are always too interested in lucid dreaming. Don't they understand that stuff is just fantasy? He puts the head of the wookiee costume on and poses for a photograph, doing his best Chewbacca cry. Cameras flash. The dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #116: Dive Bomber in Darkness

I'm walking out of the lobby of a hospital, some important errand on my mind. When I head through the bank of automatic doors into the night, I'm confronted by a huge crowd of reporters and spectators that are hanging around like something important is about to happen. Is this a dream? Yes.

Looking into the crowd, I see my high school physics teacher, "Mrs. C". I walk up to her. "[Mrs. C]! I know that you've been waiting, like, forever for me to go on Draw Something. Sorry about that. How have you been doing?"

"Oh, that's all right!" she says. "My wife and I have been doing great." This is strange -- Mrs. C has a husband, not a wife. He even came by the school a couple of times.

"Well it was good talking to you," I say, and I step back from the crowd a bit, thinking about my next move. I remember wanting to go to Angel Falls so I decide that'll be my goal for this dream.

But just as I'm making my plans, I notice that one of the reporters standing nearby is extremely attractive. She's about 30, probably half-Asian, and lightly freckled. I start thinking very sexy thoughts before catching myself -- if I approach her, I know for sure that the dream will only head one way (and not to Angel Falls.) I back quickly away, my mind still going sexytime. The reporter stops speaking into her microphone, looks directly at me and says, "I think I love you."

I put out my hands and kind of wave them around. "No! No, you don't! I'm sorry, that was my fault!" Immediately she returns to what she was doing, forgetting all about me.

Okay, Angel Falls. I scan the horizon but there's nothing to really use. I could just start flying and try to work from there... As I'm planning, I start thinking about the good-looking reporter again. Okay, I really need to get out of here...

I allow myself just a moment to imagine that the top of Angel Falls is right behind me. Then I fling myself backwards as if I'm jumping off of a cliff, imagining myself going over the falls. There's a weird moment where I'm stuck upside down, my head sort of embedded in the sidewalk. After a couple of awkward seconds like this, I wind up in the void.

I rub my hands together, then imagine that I'm falling along the falls. Almost immediately I feel the spray of water against my face and arms. I point myself facefirst at the ground, arms tight to my sides. Air rushes past my skin as I gather speed. I feel myself going faster and faster, air filling my mouth. I keep "falling" like this for at least 30 seconds, and the sensation is so awesome that I don't even mind not having visuals.

I feel amused that "Angel Falls" is so incredibly high that I can skydive like this from it. I wonder how long this can go on. Even though I'm enjoying myself immensely falling through the darkness like this, I know that I need visuals to complete the task. I try to focus on what this should all look like but the intensity of the rest of the experience has me a bit distracted. The dream ends before I can make it all come together.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #115: Sandwiches for Skeptics

I DEILDed during this dream and wound up really scrambling the beginning. Pity. Anyway, I think this was a DILD. I remember something about a prison, finding my way through an office building, and being attacked. Somewhere along the way, I find Wife and my oldest son E. My memory becomes very clear here: It's morning and I'm walking through an empty, gray city with Wife and our oldest son E. I hold E's hand as he bounces and scampers beside me, pointing and jabbering excitedly.

We pass under a bridge and walk up a sloped street. All around us are gray vacant lots, brownstone tenements, and the occasional piece of newspaper carried on the wind. The one swatch of color is a bus stop to our left that bears a beautiful ad for Arby's. Below the Arby's logo it reads, "Sandwiches for Skeptics".

I find this very amusing but also really unlikely to be the new Arby's slogan. I tell Wife that "I'll have to google that later" but she doesn't respond. I run my fingers over the sign, appreciating its detail. There are even some air bubbles underneath the paper as if it wasn't pasted down all that carefully. I take my time with this, thinking that it can only help to draw me into the dream.

Task of the Year occurs to me. I'm fired up about going to Angel Falls, and I imagine that it's out there, just past the vacant lot and a row of buildings. As I do, I see little sprays of water coming up from over the tops of the buildings. I'm amused that the "graphics" for this water are absolutely terrible. The little puffs of water look like repeated, low-resolution particle effects with no animation.

Okay, enough thinking. Time to fly. I consider summoning NewArtemis to join us but then remember that I need to stay focused -- I'm already trying to bring two DCs with me. A summoning is pushing my luck too much. I take to the air, still holding E's hand, and his reaction is surprisingly subdued. From the ground below, I hear Wife say, "Oh okay... bye, guys!"

"Just follow us!" I shout back to her.

There's no reply, though, so I focus on flight. Looks like it's just me and E now. As we fly high enough to look over the tops of the surrounding buildings, I see that the entire city rest atop a huge mesa that rises high above an ocean. At the edge of the mesa I see a waterfall -- Angel Falls!

The Falls are a long way off, so I focus on flying faster and faster. We get up some good speed, but the dream is starting to feel thin and insubstantial. All I can think to do is speed up, but I'm not fast enough. We're still about a quarter mile away from the falls when I feel the sensation (real or imagined) of my eyeballs moving around and I'm awake.

I relax and go for a DEILD. I quickly enter a new dream scene, flying again, but this time as an observer with no dream body. I'm on a long, spiraling slope built out of stone blocks. The sides are unwalled and I can see that this tower stretches far above the clouds. I slide smoothly upward along the slope, making at least 3 full revolutions. I'm aware that I'm dreaming but I make no attempt to exert control. I'm content to just know where the tower leads. I keep spiraling upward and either lose lucidity or slip into the darkness between dreams...

This was the second of two lucid dreams from last night, and a pretty close call for the South America Task of the Year. I'm getting closer! Just need to seal the deal! Very fun dream, success or no. Man, I want these bad.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #77: The Mesa

I'm driving under an overpass, approaching a stoplight. Out of nowhere, the car in front of me stops and I slam on the brakes. The brakes are super sluggish to respond and the car drifts to a very leisurely stop, stopping just a couple of feet from an embarrassing fender-bender.

The driver in front of me, a stout, balding man in his 40s with a shaved head, gets out of his car and circles around to the trunk. He shoots me a dirty look, pops the trunk open and pulls out a cooler. It takes a moment before it dawns on me, but I recognize him as a prominent DC from an earlier non-lucid dream and I become lucid.

I step out of the car, and the DC walks confrontationally toward me, like he's eager to argue about something. "Not right now," I say, and walk past him, emerging from the overpass into a bright day in some city's downtown. Beautiful glass buildings line the right side of the street and there's some sort of park to my left. Further ahead, a silvered, decorative archway spans the street.

Angel Falls is on my mind and I go for a quick Hulk-jump to try to get there. Instead of soaring into the clouds, though, I float gently up into the air, turning slowly around. It feels wonderfully relaxing and I lay back to stare up at the sunny sky, my arms flung out to the side. I float upward, a few feet away from one of those tall, windowed buildings. This feels fantastic to me and I start laughing, continuing to drift upward and slowly turn.

I'm having a ball with this, but I don't want to forget what I came to do. I tilt myself vertically again and start to rise more quickly, expecting that Angel Falls will be there on the other side of the building. As I shoot past the roof of the building, I see a broad bay dotted with distant boats. And looking out further over the bay, I see a mesa covered with greenery... one that looks just like the mesa that Angel Falls originates from! (I looked it up and this mesa is called Auyan-tepui.)



I decide to sing to keep myself focused on the task, and I come up with the following: "I'm going to Aaaaaaangel Falls!! Hell yeah Aaaaangel Falls!" I'm oblivious to how horrible my lyrics are (and my voice sounds totally rockstar) so this all seems awesome to me. After a while I think about the "Halls" brand cough drops I'd had during WBTB and come up with some second "verse" that rhymes "Falls" with "Halls". I'm sure it sucked as bad as the others but I wish I could remember it.

I'm making good progress in my flight over the bay, and I cut past a boat that looks like it's loaded with tourists (most of whom are in bucket hats for some reason.) I'm excited, happy, and confident, but for some reason I lose the dream and wake up. Really thought I had that one!!

WBTB @ 3:30AM 30min looking at Angel Falls picture.
MILD - Imagained a OBE like dream since I was well aware of myself in bed
Son yelled out and disturbed me briefly but he went back to sleep.
I rolled from back to right side and switched to WILD
WILD - Visualized a simple repetitive hand motion. This time it was arm flapping.

Angel Falls TOTY 4:56AM

I can't remember the first part of this but I don't think I missed much. Or maybe this is simply how the dream started.I am standing in my front yard just off the poarch. The dream feels dark and unstable. I have a hard time seeing. I get the weird eye opening thing again and I think I see the bedroom. I calmly close them and focus on seeing on the back of my eyelids. This seems to help. I can see the yard but it is really dark and unstable still. I hear a noise and I begin to listen. It is the fan in my room. This is no good. I remember a funny post of DarkMatters where he is basically telling someone to make out with the dream to stabilize. I laugh a little and throw myself face first on the ground.

I start licking the sidewalk that leads from the street. I can feel the rough texture on my tongue. I am a little grossed out at how real it feels but I take this as a good thing. I go for more and I reach both hands out to feel the grass on both sides of the concrete. I grope and rub and feel and really make love to the dream. All of this helps a lot and I didn't even have to buy diner first.

I get on my hands and knees and crawl around some. I see a small tree that is about 4 to 5 inches thick. For some reason I think "beaver" and I bite into the tree. It is soft but crisp like a peach. I note the taste but it is bland. I break the tree off and carry a chunk with me while I walk around the neighborhood. I continue to bite and chew as I do so. The sensation really helps stabilize the dream. I notice how I never seem to have to swallow. The tree just melts away in my mouth to nothing.

I walk north a ways but feel bored. I think trying to travel at this point would really risk destabilizing the dream. Angle Falls will have to wait. I head back toward my house. I think maybe I will break into my neighbors house and see what I find. I begin to look for it but all the houses start morphing and changing into larger newer homes until I am not in my neighborhood anymore. I stop and stop a house that looks interesting to burglarize. I stare at the rooftop and I am about to make a leap but the dream gets wavy so I wait for it. Then, for some reason, I feel compelled to turn around. It was like could sense someone was starting at me.

I see an old 70's model Ford truck parked in the street and a familiar looking young man in the driver seat. He is just looking at me expectantly. When I approach the vehicle he wordless moves over to the passenger side. I am surprised, "Oh you're going to let me drive?" I hop in.

like this but tan color


I tightly grip the steering wheel with both hands and floor it. I hear the tires break loose. I smile with excitement. The man next to me protests and says something about slowing down but I ignore him. I punch the gas harder. We make several turns and end up on a highway. I begin talking to him. I say, "You know what man? This is a dream. Do you know that? You're not even real to me right now."

He looks really nervous and mutters, "Yeah, I guess so."

I look him over again and realize that he looks just like LinkZelda. "Hey you're LinkZelda aren't you?" (I think, say yes)

He's holding on to the o'shit handle. "Um I don't know."

I am insistent that he remembers, "Yeah man. You get on dream views. We've talked a few times. Hey you know what? What if we are having a shared dream and you just aren't lucid yet? How cool would that be? Here's what I want you to do. When you wake up try to remember as much as you can about this ok? I mean you never know, right?" I start laughing like a lunatic and slap him on the knee. He seems totally put off. I just can't help myself I feel so energetic and happy.

I look away at the road. I continue to stabilize visually. I don't look at him this time when I talk. I feel like I can't contain myself. I yell, "HOLY SHIT! I EFFING LOVE THIS. WE ARE TOTALLY DREAMING RIGHT NOW! WHOOOOOHOOOOOO! I am a little afraid that my loud yelling will somehow wake me up so I stop myself.

I look back at him to see his reaction. The passenger side is totally empty. "Dammit he's gone!" I laugh and shrug it off. I begin to think about getting to Angel Falls now. I look around and it has turned bright outside. I am on some road and I see that I am at the base of what looks like Angel Falls. I look up to see the top but there is a thick mist hiding it from view. I feel like its time to get risky now. I know from past experience that I will have a hard time getting through that fog. I really don't want to end up someplace else; or worse, waking up. "Ah screw it." I phase out of the cab of the truck and fly up.

When I reach the fog I stop. It looks like a thick and opaque object. I push my head in but I am engulfed in white with nothing to visually ground myself to. I fear the dream will dissolve so I back out. Instead I throw myself to the rock face and begin to climb up. I focus visually and tactilely on the rocks. The climb is easy. I imagine comfortable hand holds as I go along and the dream obliges. After a while I decide I am nearly there. Just then, I see the top. I climb over the edge but when I stand up. It is dark again.

I look around and I see a small flat screen TV floating just above eye level and a soda machine to the right of it. I hear some random woman giving a newscast but pay no attention to the words. Its just muffled muttering. The soda machine is an Orange Sunkist machine. It is brightly lit in the darkness. I have a feeling of being in a building. I felt like I had gone to "The Bridge" (A place in my town with fake rock climbing). No this wont do. I push the enclosed feeling away from my mind.



I realize I am on a small platform. I lay down and peek over the side. All I can see is darkness at first but I focus and everything clears up. It still looks like night time but I can see that I am indeed on top of Angel Falls. I see the small white line of the river far below reflecting moonlight and water is gushing out the side of the cliff.



I push forward and fall head first. I flip around so that I am on my back. I feel weightless and light. I look around and see the water falling with me to my right. It looks like it is frozen in time but I assume we are just falling at the same rate. I reach out to feel it but I only get a mild sensation on my hand. The I hear the sound of diving into water and as I suddenly slash into it. I look around. There is light but all I see is just slightly brown river water with nothing around me. I reflexively close my eyes.

When I open then I am laying on my stomach. I can see river rocks and realize I am lying in a shallow side stream. I feel completely wet. I stand up and walk forward. I am now in some small building. Again I see the TV and the Sunkist machine to the right of it. This time there is wall behind them. I hear the same woman say, "...Here in Venezuela..." I listen closer now. "T is for Turkey." I laugh and move on.

I look around and notice the building is mostly huge glass windows, like some sort of zoo or nature center. I can see lush jungle outside. There is water from the water fall creating rain outside. I can even hear it hitting the roof of the building. I see an enclosed glass area with what looks like some sort of tiger/panther hybrid cubs. I open the glass door and reach in to pet one. They all look content and sleepy. Suddenly one of then grows large and snaps at my hand. It lets out a feline growl. I laugh and say, "Ok. I'll leave."

I feel pretty content that I completed a TOTY and am not sure what to do now. I begin to think how long this dream has lasted and how much happened. I begin to worry that I will forget. I think I should make myself wake up soon but I really don't want it to end. I wait a little longer.

I step outside and see that I am in some sort of gravel parking area. There are a few cars but no people. I can see a thick wall of jungle surrounding the area. I feel triumphant and powerful and I get the sudden urge to become a werewolf. I stretch my skin and feel myself change. I can see my shadow on the ground in front of me and watch as I transform. I look at my hands and notice that I have hairy werewolf claws and fur. I let out a howl. It sounds a little weak and unconvincing. I try again. This time it is a long and clear WOOOOOOOOOOOOO! A part of me thinks I am making a noise in my sleep. Then I remember. I really should wake up. And this seems like a good way go out of the dream.

With some great effort I manage to open my physical eyes and fully wake from the dream.

This was really a lucid fragment followed by a short DILD. Ah, there was so much unrealized potential in this dream! Way too short for all its promise. Some phasing progress though!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #65: A Short Soliloquy

I'm standing in a rain forest clearing, standing in a shallow pool of clear water with my 3-year-old son E. I realize that this must be a dream. I immediately think of jumping from Angel Falls for Task of the Year.

E seems to read my mind because he panics and starts scampering around, squeaking, "Don't want to go! No! No! Don't want to! Don't want to go!" I try to get him to calm down but I quickly wake up.

I lay there and try to DEILD, but nothing comes. I flip to my back and start some fast SSILD cycles. I am halfway through the second cycle when I lose consciousness.

It's nighttime and I'm standing in E's darkened room, reflecting on the nature of life, illusion, and reality. I think, "Everything is just an illusion." I quickly realize how right I am.

I look around and see that E's bed and E himself are both gone. I hold up my hands, looking first at the palms. I bend my fingers into claws, noting how realistic my hands look. At some point, I stopped getting so many distortions and extra fingers, it seems. "My hands are an illusion," I whisper to noone in particular.

There's very faint moonlight trickling in through the plantation shutters of E's window. I say, "This wall is an illusion, too." I remember Alyzarin talking about how easy phasing became once she internalized that every wall was nothing but a picture that only she could make real. What could be simpler or more obviously true than that?

I imagine where I'll be when I step through that wall. I move toward the wall, thinking of the Colosseum. But then I have a vision of the top of Angel Falls. It's far more vivid, so I go with that.

As I pass into the wall, it feels like nothing more than mist. My vision cuts to milky gray and I vividly hear splashing water and the shouts and greetings of friends. People are already here waiting for me, but who? Is it people from waking life? DV members preparing to do Task of the Year? Suddenly I wake up. I try to go back to sleep but it's too late in the morning to transition back in.

I'm not sure if this was a DILD, MILD, or WILD. I did a WBTB at 4, said a mantra while falling asleep, and the next thing I knew I was in a dream already lucid with no recollection of any transition period or normal dream. I had three dreams and woke up at 4:45 so .

I was standing in my room, already lucid, only to find two of my friends on my bed having sex. What the hell?! I yelled at them to stop and leave and they complied with annoyed looks on their face as they walked out the door. Not the way I wanted this dream to start out, but I was lucid so I didn't really mind. That little incident made a sex lucid the first thing on my mind but I really wanted to work on the TotY so I thought about which one to do. The Colosseum task was the first to pop into my head but I had decided to save that one for last. Instead I figured I would do the Angel Falls on, South America, I think it was for.

My friends had left the door to my room open on their way out so I walked over, closed it, and envisioned myself at the foot of Angel Falls on the other side. When I opened the door, it was just my hallway. Let's try again. I closed the door, pictured Angel Falls all by itself on the other side and, when I opened it, I was greeted by a large waterfall in the middle of a rain forest. This must be it! I stepped through the door and was immediately hit with a hot, humid air that made my clothes stick to my chest. This stickiness made me realize that I hadn't stabilized yet so I quickly rubbed my hands together and took in a big, deep breath which was quite difficult with the humidity.

I had been in a rain forest once before, in southeastern Mexico, but these seemed much thicker and wetter. In front of me lay a huge waterfall, though quite thin. The whole thing was probably 1000 feet high but only 10-20 feet wide with a surprisingly little amount of water in it. I looked at the bottom to make sure there was a sufficient pool of water for when I jumped down and it looked like a good size: about 40 feet across and seemed deep enough. I started to float up to the top of the falls and noticed that there were a lot of rocks and bumps along the path of the waterfall, something which couldn't be seen from the ground. In order to get past these I would have to jump fairly far out.

I reached the top and landed on a small, rocky outcropping just alongside the falls. I looked over the edge and started to plan out which route I would take. I looked at the pool below to find a good landing spot, one that would be deep enough but also big enough to hit. I picked a spot in the pool that was darker and looked deeper than the rest. I took a few steps back, took a deep breath, and then leaped off the edge. I curled up into a ball and yelled, "Cannonball!!!" There were a couple seconds of awkwardness as I kept falling after I yelled that. The second I thought, "Hmm, I probably should have hit the wat-" I slammed into the water, right on my butt. That was uncomfortable.

A split second after I hit the water I felt a soft, muddy bottom and my feet sunk in a few inches. I pushed up from the bottom to re-surface but my feet got caught in the mud a bit and made this a wasted effort. I slowly floated back up to the surface and, upon lifting my head out of the water all I could see was white. There was suddenly a big cloud of mist from the waterfall, something that should've been there the entire time but for some reason never was. Well, that was it, I got another TotY done. I proceeded to fill that urge I had at the beginning. Right when I reached the pique of that, I woke up.



I had prepped myself for a DEILD in the dream prior to this and was ready for when I woke up. I relaxed and went back to sleep, making sure to stay awake. After only a few seconds I was back in a dream, in my room once again, and checked my hands to make sure I was in a dream. They looked normal as a whole but seemed a little off for some reason. I did a nose-plug to be sure and I could definitely breath. It was still nighttime and was completely dark in my room so I walked over to my light switch and flipped it on. Of course, this didn't work. I was messing with it for a second but then realized, "Dur, it's a dream!" I yelled out, "Lights, please!" and the room became bright.

I figured I would go for a second task since this was technically another dream. I decided on the Australia one and went through it in my head to be sure I wasn't missing anything. I had to hitch a ride on a turtle or something and then bite a great white shark, I think. I decided to try something new to get from my house in America to the great barrier reef in Australia. I went outside into my backyard and, for some reason, it was summer, which helped for what I wanted to do. I jumped into my pool, inspired by the Angel Falls task, and pictured the great barrier reef. When I resurfaced I was off the coast of what I believe was Australia with corals and fish around me. It worked!

I had never tried breathing underwater so I though this task would be a good place to try. I went underwater and at first tried to hold my breath to see if I could just do that forever but it didn't work, I had to breathe. I hesitantly took in a small breath through my nose and was somehow able to breathe, though it felt quite odd and still freaked me out a little bit. I looked around underwater, looking for a turtle to ride on since I wasn't sure what else I could. I saw brightly colored fish and a lot of coral but no turtles. I came back to the surface and looked around. I looked on shore just a few dozen yards away and there I saw a handful of turtle lying on the shore. I whistled to them, trying to get them to come over, and, now that I think about it, treated them like dogs .

But it worked. A couple of them looked up and over at me and began to make their way to the water. It took them a while just to move the 15 feet to the water but once they got in, they zipped right on to me. I grabbed one by its "shoulders" as it came by me and just hung on for the ride. It swam all throughout the reef, from various blue-green coral to pink colored sand at the bottom. There were countless amounts of fish, from rainbow striped to orange clown fish hiding in anemone. I rode around on the turtle for a few minutes but then remembered that I had to bite a great white shark. I looked around and all I could see were gray reef sharks circling down on the floor of the reef. They weren't doing anything interesting and I knew it had to be a great white so I let go of the turtle and headed out to see.

I had never really swam before in a lucid dreaming either so this had a lot of firsts for me. I experimented with swimming arm over arm like you're taught when you're a child, but that did little when I was completely underwater. I then tried moving my legs up and down, similar to a dolphin, and that worked quite well. I was moving much faster and had a lot more control that I did just flailing around aimlessly. Just a few seconds after I got the hand of swimming I saw what looked like a great white off in the distance. I swam towards it and as I got closer I could see that it was, indeed, a great white.

Sure, I could go up and bite it plain and easy, but what fun would that be? I pictured an orca whale, the only creature I could think of that would hunt sharks, or at least attack them. I felt weird and, when I opened my eyes, I had transformed into an Orca Whale! It felt odd not having arms or anything, and my vision was quite different, given that my eyes were now towards the side of my head, but it was definitely more interesting than being myself and going up and biting a shark. I spotted the great white and headed over to it. I picked up a lot of speed, opened my mouth, and bit right down on its tail, slamming into it with full force. The shark was obviously caught off guard and, being alone, tried its best to right back. I dodged its attempts to bite me back and continued to hit it. After about 30 seconds of me biting him in various places and dodging all its attacks, it swam off into the distance. Take that, Jaws!

I started to turn back into myself afterwards and pictured me with my arms, legs, body and head, as well as come clothes. I could feel my arms (which were now fins) turning back into themselves and by legs (which were now a flipper) separating again and my whole body grew smaller. Right as I was about to become myself again, I felt the dream start to fade. I quickly finished the transformation and rubbed my hands together, remembering that I had never stabilized this time. Unfortunately, it didn't work and I woke up.

Luckily, I was able to prepare for another DEILD that would end up begin successful. Instead of doing a third task I just mimicked the ending of my first dream. I'm still not sure whether the first one was a WILD or MILD, but I got lucid so I didn't really care .