Recent DJ Posts

I'm in an old, rickety wooden house with a group of friends. Each room contains a challenge, and when that challenge has been defeated, I can spawn a new room and continue moving upwards through the never-ending attic.

The trick is that it's always hard to control groups of people. In one room, simulacra of our personal bags, backpacks and purses appear, and we all grab them by habit, wondering why they're somewhere other than where we left them (the entrance of the house.) Unfortunately, the challenge in this room is to "not steal things," and the simulacra technically aren't ours.

I figure this out, and tell everyone to put the things back and line up to ascend to the next room. Everyone moves into the area that will allow the next room to spawn—but one person didn't listen.

I'm outside, and I'm mad at husband for GM'ing a game that didn't really allow our characters a possibility of surviving. And then I realize that the scenario is kind of silly, and I'm dreaming.

There's an algae-infested lake/creek behind the old house, but I jump in regardless, willing the water to clear and breathing in deep. I swim up the creek, underwater, marvelling at the beauty of the rocks at the bed of the creek, bright green aventurine and glowing orange citrine, and I reach down to bring some with me. And I remember that I'm dreaming, and I leave the rocks be.

I reach another house up the creek, and I wander its rooms. I feel static, and I turn around with a smile, asking a question. A woman has appeared behind me, and she asks me about the old house. I tell her about it, but I know that she had something to do with the whole thing.

6-7-15

I had a fairly long lucid dream last night. Unfortunately, it was earlier on in the night. I thought I had gotten up and written it down. But now I see that I had only done that in a dream. So a lot of the details are fading from the dream. But I will share what I remember.

I was in the middle of a long complex dream. I was in an apartment in a tall building. In the part that I remember the bad guy was coming after me with a needle and was trying to drug me. I somehow ran away and out onto a balcony many stories high. I climbed over the rail and swung myself under the balcony to hide. but I realized that he would most likely look for me here. So I jumped down to the balcony below me and dropped over the edge of that one too. I started making my way down towards ground level.

Somewhere in here I realized that what I was doing would probably terrify me in real life. I must be dreaming.

I took off flying. I remembered a conversation I had where I was telling someone how real flying felt in dreams. So as I flew I really paid attention to all the sensations that went along with flying. With anything in dreams, the more you look for the details, the more you will find them. So I noticed the wind in my hair. I especially noticed how my stomach lurched when I swooped down very fast.

I ended up flying into another building. I saw a Japanese lady standing next to a table. There were beautiful plants on the table and part of the table was like a tank with about 6 inches of water in in. For some reason I really wanted to stick my head in the water and breathe the water in, since I knew I could do that in dreams. So I did. I couldn't get my whole head under water, but all of my face was covered. I took a breath and took the water in. Afterwards I pulled my head out and noticed my mouth was still full of water. So I gargled the water. My lucid self thought that was quite interesting. I had never gargled in a dream. I guess that's something we all need to experience.

I then wanted to do some sort of task. I hadn't prepped myself the night before. I didn't have a clear plan of what I wanted to do. I had too many things on my list. The first thing that popped into my head was to do the Dreamviews' Task of the Month, which I thought was to run at a wall and transport to another place--similar to Harry Potter's platform 9 3/4. (In retrospect, this was not a current Task of the Month. It had been quite a while ago. I haven't even looked up this month's Tasks because I have been out of town and busy).

I saw in front of me a wall that looked like it was made of rock. I was still inside of the building so I knew it was fake rock. It almost looked like fabric. But I figured it would work as well as anything else. I ran and pushed myself through the wall. I was a little surprised at how easy it was. (I had a long streak of dreams where I would try to use my mirror portal and would keep hitting the mirror and bouncing off.)

As I came out the other side of the wall portal I saw that I was in a very large dark room. All the walls in this room seemed to be made of fabric. They had scenes of mountains painted on.


At this point I suddenly felt myself wake up. I felt a little discouraged, but I decided that I was going back to the dream. I concentrated and pictured the room. Slowly it started appearing around me again. I felt quite satisfied with myself for getting back. This is a skill that I have been working on lately and having some success with.

To keep myself in the dream I rubbed my hands together (a good trick for dream stabilization). I also lifted my shirt and rubbed my hands on my stomach. I wanted to make sure my dream body was very solid.


I can't really remember what happened next. I know I did some more things and then woke up again. I was able to get myself back in the dream a second time. I did a few more things, but those things have faded since I didn't write them down. I don't think they were big tasks, just little things like flying and noticing things. Maybe something will come to me later today.

But anyway, even though this wasn't a spectacular LD, I felt good about it. I have been getting lucid more easily again after my long dry spell. And I am also getting better at bringing myself back to the dream if I lose it too soon. That's a great skill to figure out.

In this dream I was riding a ten speed bike in a race through the mountains of Chile. I looked around and thought to myself, “Why am I racing a bike in the mountains of Chile? I can barely ride a bike, how is this happening?” Bingo! Lucid! The first thing I did was race to the front of the pack, and then I left them in a blur, and soon I was passing cars. I forced the bike faster and faster, without any fear whatsoever. There were many crests in the road, and my bike was launching into the air! It was fun, and totally unrealistic, but just the same, it was fun! In the distance I saw the finish line approaching, so flew with my bike through the air (like ET on nitrous) and under the finish ribbon, sliding sideways to a stop. A teenage girl walked past me with ‘real’ looking eyes, so I gave her a hug thinking she was maybe my daughter. She got pissed off at me and she pushed me away (nope, not my daughter). I said to her, “I just wanted a hug.” Then I turned to the crowd at the finish line and asked them if anybody has seen my daughter. A group of girls heard me and they all looked very interested in what I said, but then I woke.

In this second dream I was lucid, but I can’t remember how or why I became lucid. I was standing on a balcony, high up on a building, which was alongside a fairly narrow river. The fellow beside me shot a zip line across the river and into the brick wall of a boardwalk. The line went down at a very steep angle, and was it was totally unsafe, but whatever, this is a dream! I quickly latched my Kingsnap onto the zip line, and I went shooting down towards the boardwalk at a very high speed. I heard somebody say, “Look at that, that’s totally nuts!” At about 20 yards from the boardwalks’ brick wall, I disconnected my Kingsnap and went sailing feet first into the river. Splash! The water was perfectly blue, and I couldn’t see the bottom. I then started to breathe comfortably under the water as I swam for the surface. I swam and swam, but I couldn’t find it, and soon after I woke.

In this 3rd lucid dream I was climbing a ladder up the side of a building, and there was one guy above me and one below. Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly I farted! I looked at the guy below me and said, “Oops, did I fart?”, and then a World War II gas mask appeared on his face! This was a fragmented lucid dream, so I don’t remember what happened next.

In this 4th dream, I was lying beside my bed talking to a woman, when I became spontaneously lucid. I thought the woman looked like my wife’s cousin Kim. My bedroom was dark, but she was glowing slightly white. I said, “Kim, is that you?” She replied, “Yes”, so I floated up off the ground so I was face to face with her. She wasn’t Kim. I said, “Who are you?” By this point she looked a bit frightened and she started to float up towards the ceiling, so I stayed right face to face with her and followed. She then started to pass through the ceiling, and I said, “No wait, please stay!” She vanished, and I woke. A couple of days later, on Mar 24, I had a lucid dream with my daughter, and I met this woman again. Her name is Mila.

In this 5th dream, I was lucid at a swimming pool (not sure why). I looked over the edge of the pool and saw a bunch of kids sitting on the bottom, so I dove in to join them. I sat down beside them and I was breathing normally. They were all just hanging out down there, and chatting with each other. I got bored, so I started to swim around the pool, and I then I woke again.

Usually in my dreams I can breathe underwater as if it were air, and nothing ever seems strange about that. Well, this morning, after waking up around 4:15 AM, I fell back asleep around 4:30 AM and had a dream in which I was underwater, fighting (kicking) some sort of jellyfish with a horn on its head. But, at some point, I realized that it should be impossible to breathe underwater, and so I began to drown. I became completely paralyzed, numb, and limp, and slowly floated up toward the bright surface. Before I reached the top, though, all had faded to black, and I woke up, just ten minutes after I had fallen asleep, holding my breath.

The last time I remember having trouble breathing in my dream I woke up face down on my pillow.

Do you ever have trouble breathing in your dreams?

i was holding my breath underwater and when i realized i couldnt hold it anymore i thought i was going to drown, but i realized i was breathing just fine and that i could breath underwater

I was at a large indoor pool, which was partially owned by a school. The ceiling was very high above the surface of the water and from the wall, rather close to the ceiling, a waterfall poured down into the pool. I stood up there, looking across the enormous room. People jumped down the waterfall, into the pool and I felt kind of forced to do that too. However, I could easily back away from this. The thing was, I wanted to overcome my fear of jumping from this height and therefore felt that I had to jump for that sake.

When looking in front of me again, I noticed a branch 1,5-2 meters out and then remembered that I had jumped from up here before, by first throwing myself towards the branch and grabbing it. Nonetheless, as I was looking at it now, I doubted that I would be able to jump far enough to reach it... Someone else ran past me over the edge and grabbed the branch, swinged himself from it and fell towards the water. This made me more determined and less worried. I knew I could do this. I threw myself towards the branch and easily grabbed it. I did not feel heavy or anything hanging there and I begun swinging back and forth, preparing to let go. After swinging back and forth a few times and was swinging forward again I let go of the branch, plunging forward through the air. I felt so free and alive! However, I realized I might have gained to much power when swinging forward and thought I would crash into the wall on the other side. Instead, as I flew closer to the wall, I begun losing altitude faster, splashing into the water close to the wall.

Because of the incredible power that falling from high above had given me, my body continued very deeply down the water. It was an incredible feeling, but I began suspecting that I would have a hard time making it all the way to the surface without breathing. At the same time, I almost did not worry about this at all for some reason. Once my body had stopped being pushed deeper, I began swimming upwards. I had only done a few strokes, though, when I accidentally inhaled. The strange thing was, I felt myself breathing normal air. I got a bit confused about this and was on the verge of becoming lucid!

Awake, Non-lucid, Lucid, [Commentary made while awake]

I'm walking around on the ground floor of a large, three-story shopping mall. The interior is a very bright, airy space, with white walls and a glass ceiling through which the sun shines. While I'm walking along, the realization suddenly hits me: This is a dream! I'm so shocked that the scene around me immediately starts to become less clear, filling up with gray pixels that multiply quickly [they look a lot like static on an analog TV], just like it always does when my dreams start to destabilize. Oh, dammit! I think. I immediately drop to my hands and knees on the tile floor, focusing on touching the floor and on staying focused on the scene around me, and thinking reassuring thoughts to myself: It's okay. It's okay. In 30 seconds or so, the scene is clear and stable again. I get up and start walking again, exploring the place I'm in.

As I look around me, I look up at the ceiling, three stories above me, to see winter greenery with ornaments on it and big, shiny bells in red, gold, and green lined up in a recessed space just below the edge of the ceiling. “They haven't even taken down all their Christmas decorations yet,” I remark. I find that I've come upon the entrance to a vacant department store, currently being used as a storage space for the Christmas decorations that have been taken down. Among other things, there is a large, haphazard pile of blue and white styrofoam wreaths. There's no gate or other barrier to entry across the entrance to the store, so I spontaneously decide to jump into the pile of wreaths as if they were dry leaves. It's fun! Some of them break, and I just say, “It's my dream world, and I'll destroy the wreaths if I want to.”

When I get up, I wonder what's on the floor above me, and I decide to explore it. I look to the side and see that there's a side entrance to the department store, and there's a flight of stairs outside that entrance, which I can see through the window. I could take them, but it would be quicker, easier, and cooler to just levitate myself through the ceiling above me, so I decide to do that. I close my eyes and, with an act of will, start rising upward.

[Note: I don't really remember where in the sequence the following two paragraphs went, but I'm sure I was lucid, so I put them here.]

Now I'm in a big, industrial-looking building complex with multiple floors, walkways, and sets of stairs running through the vast interior space. It's dark inside; all the walls and floors are black or dark gray, and there aren't very many lights. This area is [somehow] part of the Star Wars galaxy. As I wander around here, I can hear a dialogue between a post-redemption Darth Vader [he's still speaking in the James Earl Jones voice, though] and some other random character. The other character addresses Vader as “Rash,” apparently using it as a first name. Vader, offended by this, replies: “Rash?! I may have acted rashly, but my name is Anakin.” I smile.

[Somewhere in here,] I meet and interact with another young woman about my age. She leads me on a walk through the area, talking to me. Our walk ends at a spot overlooking a view of a natural, green valley. Then, she says something like, “Instead of waiting around for them to break your heart, like I did, go out and grab hold of what you want.” I wonder if this is my best self giving me advice.

When I open my eyes again after a scene transition [which I'm pretty sure I remember being the levitation one mentioned above, but again, I don't remember in what order the above two scenes happened], I'm standing on the second floor of a building, overlooking a very beautiful view. There is a clear, sparkling swimming pool in front of me, but it's big enough to be a small lake and wraps around three sides of a tall, stucco community clubhouse building with a red tile roof. The pool is in a park, surrounded by green grass and trees. Off to the left is a street, on the other side of which are houses that match the style of the clubhouse. The scene is so beautiful that I exclaim, “Man, I wish I could take pictures!” ...So I could post them on DreamViews to show everyone! is the thought behind that remark.

I decide to go swimming. The tower I'm in has exterior stairs on the side facing the pool. I start going down the stairs. As I do, I pass a window and look at my reflection in it. I'm pleased to see that I'm already wearing a swimsuit, a fact which I attribute to my decision to go swimming. My face looks completely normal. I try smiling, but my reflection stays the same for a moment, then returns a crooked smile, using only one side of its mouth. 'Cause it's a dream mirror, not a real one, I think. It doesn't work like a real one would.

I walk to the side of the pool and jump right into the deep water [something I don't usually do in real life, because I suck at swimming]. It feels wet. I swim around on the surface of the water much more easily than in real life, enjoying the experience. Several times, I lower my head so that my nose is under the water and enjoy the fact that I can still breathe normally. I want to swim completely underwater and open my eyes, but I don't, because I have the very realistic sensation of having water in my right eye, forcing me to keep it closed.

Other people are swimming in the pool. We hang out and talk a little. After a while, I get out and keep exploring the park I'm in.

In another area of the park, there are a series of big pieces of plastic playground equipment, white with pastel accents, with a miniature golf course built around and through them. I start climbing the largest one, using the metal handles and small platforms built into the structure to climb. This climbing route goes up toward the main body of the play structure in an arc, and each foothold is only supported by a single column or bar, so it looks like there's mostly open space below you, and you can see exactly how far you are off the ground. I'm not afraid at all, though, because I know it's a dream and I can't get hurt.

Just as I reach the main body of the play structure, the memory of the current Task of the Month suddenly hits me: set off fireworks in a crowded place and record how the people there reacted. I recall how other DV members have done it. I slide down the slide that's in front of me, determined to complete the task.

Not far from the play equipment, some people are beginning to gather at some tables for a picnic. I start trying to obtain a firecracker [because that's what several other DV members used]. I reach behind my back and try to make one appear there, but it doesn't work. I try looking around corners in the scene and expecting one to be there, but that doesn't work either. I really suck at summoning things, I think. Then I think of another approach: find an existing object and transform it.

On the ground, under a tree a few yards from the picnic area, I find the pointy half of a broken-in-half yellow pencil. I pick it up and sandwich it between my two cupped hands, focusing my will on it and willing it to turn into a firecracker. When I open my hands, it has swollen up and gotten round and puffy in the middle.

All the picnic tables are now full of people, and I see that some of them have their marching band instruments with them, which makes me realize that they're a marching band. I see at least one trombone in the group. I stand a couple of yards back from one of the tables and throw my pencil at the group of people. It hits the center of the table and explodes with a loud crack. No one takes any particular notice [at least, not that I can recall]. When I retrieve the pencil, the lead has shot out of the tip and gone limp, like a piece of spaghetti. I decide to continue in my search for a firecracker.

I end up walking through the halls of a dusty building that resembles my section of the university library where I used to work. I continue trying to summon a firecracker or firework by expecting one to be there when I look around a corner or into a room, but it still doesn't work. In one storage room full of random stuff, I hear a hissing sound that I think is the sound of a firework fuse burning at first, but then I realize it's the sound of the small air blower on a strange, old machine that is running in the middle of the floor. I continue searching this room for a firework, but I woke up in the middle of my search.

Old LD from 7-23-07


Lucid Dream:

It started with me being at a mall. I was with a friend (maybe M) we passed two guys. I recognised one as Jeff. But I somehow knew that this was in the past and he didn't know me yet. I smiled at him. Then after a few more steps past him I turned and smiled again. Then I told my friend that. And we both turn back and smile at him again, but he was no longer looking at us. I thought, "Well, that's dumb..."

The next thing I remember is that I was then sitting at the table eating ice cream with him. It was very mesy. It was like the container that my ice cream was in had an opening at both ends and it kept dripping out onto the table.

Then the three of us continued walking in the mall. It was closing time. It seems like something happened here, but I don't remember details. Something about feeling angry at this guy working here. He makes me fall and I "spill" some of the floor that he is responsible for cleaning.

I get left behind my friends. So I hurry out of the mall. There were some cool things that looked a bit like rain gutters, but were also big and painted red and made of concrete. I decided to slide down one standing up, I was able to get down the the level I wanted by sliding.

Then things transition, I am with a big group of people in this big starirwell area.

I suddenly see my dad hurrying up the stairs. I am excited to see my dad. But right as I get to him and reach for his sleeve, I realise that I'm dreaming.

I look at this big group of people. I want to try the DV member task again. Surely there is a DV member in this large group. I scan the faces for someone familiar. They are mostly teenagers, and I don't recognise anyone. So I start asking around. "Does anyone know any DV members?"

At first I have trouble getting any volume in my voice. This has been a problem in some of my LDs. It's like I'm trying to talk with my real mouth, yet I can't because of sleep paralysis. But then I am finally able to use my dream mouth.

One of the boys responds to me and points to the floor above me and says, "Try the boy with the wheelchair"

I climb the stairs to a dark haired boy standing by a blond boy in a wheelchair. I suddenly realise I don't know which boy I was reffered to. So I ask them, "Are either of you DV members?"

They both nod and say, "Yeah..."

So I continue, "Have either of you ever had a Lucid dream?"

The dark haired boy nods, but the other boy asks, "Well, what exactly is a lucid dream?"

I said, "Well, it's when you're dreaming, then you suddenly become "awake" in your dream--you become consious that you are dreaming, and if you have good control, you can do anything...."

I said that all in a way that left then both looking at me like it was the absolutely coolest thing ever.

So of course that made me want to show off a little. I continued "...like this."

And I suddenly stood up on the stair rail. Beside me was a three story drop onto concrete. I stood dramatically, then let myself fall backward. I fell until I was almost to the bottom, then righted myself and landed feet first. I then kicked off again. I did the same thing in reverse. As soon as I got to the ceiling, I turned so I was "standing" on the ceiling. Then kicked off again to the floor.

I believe a did this several times. I enjoyed the way it felt. It was like I was able to switch the direction of gravity in the middle. It was a very cool feeling.



Then I stop and decide that I really want to try the Pet Task that I was unable to succesfully complete last time.

I was standing in the middle of on set of stairs. To the side at the level of my face were some cats. My first thought was, "But these aren't my cats..." But then I quickly decided that I didn't care. I looked at the closest cat. There was something on its mouth. It looked like smashed cornflakes. It looked very unappealing. So I turned to the other cat. It also had the same stuff on its mouth. Their mouths looked almost sealed shut with it.

I looked for another pet. This time I saw a group of about four kittens. They were very small and very cute. I reached for one. They all kind of backed away, but I managed to get ahold of one. It was white with patches of dark brownish grey tabby. It's eyes were a dark grey. I set it down on the ledge that was eye level to my face. I told it that it could talk now. It opened its mouth and said an a small voice, "Cookie...."

I was a little confused as to what it meant--I used to have a cat named Cookie. So I asked it, "Do you want a cookie...or is that a name?" It just looked at me.

I then remembered that it was just a baby. So I made the question simpler. So I asked, "Do you want a cookie?" The tiny kitten nodded its head. I laughed a little and said to it, "But you're so little, you shouldn't be eating anything buy your mama's milk. Who's been giving you cookies?" But the kitten didn't answer.

I took off flying again. I flew outside. I was on the roof of a three story apartment building.

I remember thinking about how I had been talking about how cool it was to just fall backward off things...so I decided to do it again. As I stood at the edge about to fall, I thought, "Now am I really sure I'm dreaming. If I'm not, this will be fatal."

But I was already falling backwards. I didn't fall to the ground level, but just to a balcony on the floor below. I actually landed on a soft couch. I stood up again and was planning to fall backwards again, but I saw a pool down below. I remembered how I had wanted to do a Water Task. This wasn't the ocean, but a pool could be good practice for future water Tasks.

So I dived off the balcony and went straight in the water of the pool. I worked myself to the botton. I started to breath. It was a very strange feeling. It wasn't like I had rememberd before when I was breathing underwater just like it was air.

I could kind of feel the unpleasant feeling of water trying to come in through my nose. I had to block my nose breathing off. When I breathed through my mouth it felt like there were bubble appearing right in front of my mouth that I was able to suck in. It made a little bubbly noise as I did so. But it worked, I was able to breath. And it seemed significant to me that I would be able to breath like this indefinitely.

I looked around again to see if there was anything interesting at the bottom of the pool. I saw a guy and a dog also laying at the bottom.

I decided to try the Pet Task again with the dog. I started talking to it and asked it to talk to me. But suddenly the guy that was with the dog got mad at me. He said, " He's underwater! And you want him to talk!" --as if it would kill the dog for it to talk underwater. Of course this guy was talking underwater and it wasn't killing him.

I was trying to decide if I was going to debate this with the guy, but then I could feel myself losing the dream.

Color-coding key:
Awake, Non-lucid, Possibly lucid? (not sure), Lucid, Lucid 'dream within a dream,' [Commentary made while awake]

[This morning, my alarm went off at 7:30. I had planned to get up and write, but I still felt so sleepy that I decided to sleep in. I believe I had all these dreams during the extra hour I slept in. Again, I don't remember the transitions that connected them, if there were any, which is why this entry may seem fragmented.]

I'm out somewhere with my parents and T&P [some real-life friends of ours]. We're in a gravel parking lot, getting into our cars to go somewhere. I'm driving my own car by myself. I follow the other car, which has my parents and T&P in it, out of the parking lot and along a narrow, gravel-covered alley. There are two big rocks in the middle of it. I watch the other car drive over them and worry that my car isn't high enough off the ground to clear them, but it does, with no problem.

I have a small patch of thick, dark-brown hairs growing out of a mole on the right side of my chin. I want to pull all the hairs out with tweezers, but I look for the tweezers and can't find them. Later, I look in the mirror again and have a short, but thick beard, with only a couple of long hairs straying outside of the beard zone. I still can't find the tweezers, so I try to pull them out with my fingers, but can't; they're too solidly rooted. I continue playing with those hairs with my fingers as I go about the rest of my day. [Funny how at no point during this sequence did I think to question the situation; I'm a girl! I do, however, find and pull on stray hairs like that often in real life.]

I'm explaining to someone, over the phone [I think], that J&L have passed away. The conversation continues, and I say something about how hard it must be for the other person to find this out. [J&L are the original owners of the house I'm now renting. I've had this conversation over the phone at least twice in real life. Even though I never actually met them, it's still hard to tell people that news.]

I'm in a body of water, and there's this little cartoon guy swimming in the water. He has a mask and a snorkel on. There is a song playing: “let's go swimming under the sea!”, it says, or something like that. I'm following the little cartoon guy as he swims through the water. I have my own snorkel, but no mask. I don't really need it, though, because when I duck my head below the surface, I can see underwater just as clearly as if I were wearing a mask, and the water doesn't sting my eyes at all. Then, the little cartoon guy starts diving deeper under the water. I think to myself, It annoys me when cartoon characters do that when they only have a snorkel. [Somewhere toward the beginning of this dream, I became aware that I was dreaming, but I don't remember precisely when, nor what triggered it.] I want to continue following him under the water, and I think to myself, I can breathe underwater in dreams. My known dream ability to breathe water activates at this thought. I abandon the snorkel and continue following the little cartoon guy. We're in what looks like an ocean. The water is deep blue, and there are sea creatures of some kind swimming in it.

I'm in an unfamiliar bedroom, going to sleep. I even feel sleepy. While I'm getting into bed and falling asleep, I think about the fact that I'm going to be in a a dream as soon as I fall asleep, and that I'm going to be lucid and take conscious, intentional action while I'm there. [I remember having a specific mission in mind, but I don't remember what it was.] After a few seconds, I roll sideways out of bed and know that I'm in the dream world. [I think some kind of dream followed, but I don't remember it now. After that dream ends,] I'm back in the same bedroom again, and I go through the same sequence of falling asleep and knowing that I'm about to enter a lucid dream. This time, I sit up in bed to enter the dream, and then climb out of bed and step away from it, towards the door of the room. I cast a sidelong glance over at the bed and get a glimpse of myself, lying asleep. I quickly look away. I think, I know this is a dream room, and that that isn't actually my real body, but still, it's creepy. [I'm pretty sure I was aware that I was dreaming throughout this entire sequence, even the parts where I was falling asleep.] The reason I know that the whole experience is just a dream is that the bedroom I'm in isn't mine. The walls are painted a dark, cool color, the bedclothes match the walls, and the room is longer and narrower than my real one.

From that unfamiliar bedroom, I walk out into a plaza surrounded by buildings. It is a sunny day. There are signs in the plaza directing people to an area where a birthday party is being held for a child. I walk into that area and find a table with a bunch of party food set out on it. From that table, I take a cupcake and start eating it, without bothering to take the paper off first. I want to take advantage of the opportunity to do that. I know that this is my dream body, so I don't have to worry about the paper doing me any harm, and in addition, I don't have to worry about what the DCs around me will think if they see me eating the cupcake paper. The cupcake itself feels and tastes exactly like cupcakes do in real life. I walk around while eating it, observing all the people walking around and the kids running around and playing in the courtyard.

As I continue to explore the dream environment, I come upon another sign reminding everyone that it's time to go and complete the paperwork to register their cars. I follow the directional arrows on the sign, and end up entering a building that contains an office with a reception desk front and center as you walk in the front door of the building. I go up to the reception desk, tell the woman there my name, and ask for my car registration form. It turns out that the form is filed under my old address from when I was living in Florida. She gives it to me to update. The sheet of paper she gives me is the top sheet of a piece of carbon paper. It's a sheet I already filled out back when I was living in Florida; it has all my information from those days on it, in my handwriting, in blue ballpoint pen. I start working on bringing the information on it up to date.

The top section of the form contains several multiple-choice questions with checkboxes below them. These questions are all about your religious beliefs, and they're really only on the form as a formality. They ask about whether or not you believe in the Bartel Water Bug, and the boxes indicating non-belief are already checked. I read over this section and then start updating the form with my current address, but then it occurs to me to think: Why am I wasting dream time filling out a form? I look up from the paper to see what the woman behind the desk is doing. She has turned away to do something else. I set down my pen, turn around, and walk quickly out of the building while she's not looking.

Back in the courtyard, I discover that the item I've decided [in real life] to use as a totem, which in my case is a thimble, behaves in a very interesting way when thrown or tossed in a dream. Namely, it acts like a magnet. Whenever it comes anywhere near another person [yes, even if the other person is just a DC], it flies away from them as if it were being repelled by their presence. Then it flies back toward me, straight into my hand, as if it were magnetically attracted to me. I encounter a family that I know in real life, walking along the edge of the courtyard. I say something like, “You're gonna get this thing thrown at you,” to the 7-or-8-year-old daughter in the family, and then I throw my thimble at her. When it gets within about a foot of her, it flies away from her and back toward me, and I catch it. [That's the last I remember.]

---------------------------
Side notes:

When I woke up for real and reflected on the part of my dream where I kept dreaming about waking up and falling asleep within the dream, I thought, "Cool! My mind came up with a kind of hybrid dream experience, incorporating characteristics of the lucid dreaming experience that I learned from Inception (the knowledge that I was about to fall asleep and immediately find myself in a lucid dream, the experience of entering that dream from within another dream), as well as characteristics that I learned from DreamViews and from EWOLD (the perception of rolling out of my dream body and the knowledge that that room was itself a dream)." To those people who looked down on the newcomers who jumped on the lucid-dreaming bandwagon after Inception came out: I was one of those bandwagon-jumpers, even though I tried not to be too obnoxious and annoying about it, and I believe that we newcomers are perfectly capable of learning and growing into the world of lucid dreaming as it is actually experienced outside of the movies.

Lucid Dream (WBTB):

I knew I was dreaming, yet there was no image. I imagined myself flying and after a moment could feel the wind and motion, but still without any visuals. Finally I could see and saw that I was hovering over my backyard in LA. Beyond the yard was Lake Powell. I decided I wanted to fly over the lake and dive in and go to the bottom.

I approached the lake and started to dive down. But as I got closer I could see that the lake was very dark and murky. It freaked me out some. So as I got to the surface of the lake I stopped right before I went into the water.

Unknown transition....

I was by a pool. I wanted to try to breathe underwater. [I had done this before so I'm not sure why I wanted to try this so badly at the moment.]

I flew right over the surface and dunked my head into the water. The water was cool and wet. I didn't want to take a breath. I started having a little argument with myself. "Breathe...this is just a dream." "No, the water feels too real. It'll get in my mouth and lungs. It'll feel awful." "No, the water isn't real, your body is in bed breathing air. If you take a breath, your body will breathe air." "See--I opened my mouth a little and water came in. It might not be real, but it feels real and will make me choke if I take a big breath."

But finally I took a breath. I could feel water in my mouth, but only air came down to my lungs. I was almost surprised, but then I was relieved and took several more breaths.

Unknown transition....

I was standing in front of a mirror. I noticed that I looked like a guy. I had sandy blond hair which was slightly curly. I had nice full lips and a little stubble on my chin and cheeks. I had nice dark eyebrows and eyelashes. I was wearing a pink and white bike jersey.

I decided to take off my shirt and look at my chest. I was pretty pale, but I had nice muscles.

Then I decided that I wanted to have my girl body back, so I tried to make my breasts grow. At first nothing happened. Then finally, I grew small breasts. But I wanted bigger breast so I kept trying.

But I think I woke up or lost the dream before that happened, because that's all I remember.

Date: 09-25-10
Length: 5 minutes
Vividness: 7/10

My friends, Graham and Cooper, and I were by a pool and we decided to go in.
For some reason, Graham punched me in the crotch, and I did it back.
He told me not to because "it's an implant!"
I jumped in and cooper and I had a breath-holding competition.
I couldn't hold my breath any longer and I inhaled the water and woke up.

-frenchblablabla

Awake, Lucid, [Commentary made while awake]

The moment I see my old college campus start to appear out of the darkness, I realize, Oh, cool, a dream is starting. There are lots of multistory buildings all around me, and it's a beautiful day with a vivid blue sky and puffy white clouds. The dream is fairly vivid [and remains so throughout its entire length]. I observe that the environment around me is consistent with the environment I've observed in previous dreams set on my old college campus. [Although, now that I think about it, I think the dreams I have that are set there feel similar more than they look similar. Being in the environment always feels the same, but I think the layout, the spatial relationships of buildings, is slightly different each time. The style of the buildings is always pretty much the same, though.]

I walk along among the buildings, and eventually [possibly after a dreamskip?] find myself inside somebody’s house. The living room has been filled with chlorinated water and turned into a big, deep indoor pool. The second floor of the house is open to the living room, and has a balcony-like walkway that surrounds the living room on three sides. The water comes almost all the way up to the level of the walkway. When I see the pool, I think, This is a dream. I should be able to breathe underwater. I get into the water and start swimming down into the pool, testing this hypothesis. It proves to be correct. By consciously focusing on the knowledge that I can breathe underwater here, I can breathe underwater. While I'm swimming, I feel the resistance that one normally feels from the water when swimming, but not the wetness; I still feel completely dry. I also notice that breathing feels exactly the same as it normally does when I'm breathing air; those parts of my body don't feel any resistance from the water, whereas my skin and limbs do feel it. [I think this experience further demonstrates the same phenomenon that lies behind the nose-pinch reality check: doing something that would obstruct your ability to breathe in reality will not obstruct it in a dream, because your real body is still breathing normally.]

I resurface, then dive again, this time going all the way to the bottom of the pool. I find a small, square sticker there, part of a board game. I retrieve it and bring it to a dream character who is sitting on the walkway at the side of the pool opposite where I came into the room. He's playing the game that the sticker came from. I hand him the sticker, saying something like, “Here. This is part of your game. I brought this back for you.”

The dream character accepts the sticker and asks me to go over to the far corner of the room (near where I came in) and retrieve another, similar sticker that he dropped. I agree to do so. Before I dive under the water again, I pretend to take a deep breath and hold it, for the sake of appearances. I don't want any of the several dream characters who are around to realize that I have superhuman abilities. I dive toward the bottom corner of the pool at the far end of the room, where two walls come together at an acute angle. I find not only another sticker like the first one, but also a die, a playing card, and other, similar small objects from games. I pick them all up.

I decide to try to get back to the second floor by flying. [Apparently because I want there not to be,] There's no water around me anymore. With a short grunt, I try unsuccessfully to take off. I decide to just climb the nearby stairs to get up to the second-floor walkway.

I walk along the walkway and stop in front of the male dream character playing the game. He asks me, “What was that grunt?”

“I was trying to jump up and fly back to the second floor,” I answer.

“Why?” he asks.

I throw my handful of small game pieces at him. “Because you're a dream character!” I exclaim. [Or it might have been, “Because I'm dreaming!” I don't quite remember. The main point is that I dropped all pretense that I was a regular person with no superhuman abilities at this moment, and admitted to being the dreamer.]

A second later, my conscience kicks in. “Wait. I don't know why I did that,” I say. “That was rude. I'm sorry.”

A woman about my age with short, dark hair joins our conversation at this point. She starts off by addressing me, saying something like, “That's right. You're dreaming.” She, the game-playing DC, and I all proceed to have a long, in-depth conversation on the subject of lucid dreaming. [Unfortunately, I don't remember much of what we said. What I do recall is an overall impression that this woman was an expert on the subject, and that her attitude toward me was that of a supportive older mentor. She seemed interested in my progress and how much I had learned so far.] The dark-haired woman asks me something like, “This is your fortieth or so lucid dream, right?”

“Forty-seventh, or fiftieth, something like that,” I answer.

At another point during the conversation, another guy my age, named Andy, is also there in the room. The dark-haired woman points him out to me as another dreamer. [I had no intention of anything like that happening to me. If it did, it was completely without my desire or consent.]

Andy, the woman, the game-playing DC, and I all walk out of the building onto the coast by my university. We're facing a sea cliff with train tracks running along it. We walk along and come to the grassy, topmost level of an amphitheater, built into the land where it slopes down toward the beach. Below the grassy part are many levels of bleachers made out of a metal mesh.

“I really like floaty things,” I observe, addressing the woman. I point out that there are a lot of colorful helium balloons around, and a lot of the other people who are around are flying small, colorful kites. I have one myself.

The other DCs who are there are passing around a strange contraption. At its center is a device that has a chamber in which marijuana leaves are burning, and a fan. The fan is keeping the semi-transparent plastic garbage bag that surrounds the device inflated. The bag is there to keep the marijuana smoke in, but there is a tear in the plastic near the knot, allowing the smoke to escape at a limited rate so that one might inhale it. One of the other, female DCs in the scene comes over to me and my group and offers us the contraption. The other DCs in my group accept it first and take hits from it, then offer it to me. My immediate reaction to getting the opportunity to try marijuana is, Yay! I can do this without getting in trouble or risking the health of my real body, and if I do it, I can brag about it on the forums! [Meaning DreamViews, of course.]

I accept the blown-up garbage bag and maneuver it so that the tear in the plastic is near my face. This isn't easy to do with the fan device constantly inflating the plastic from the inside and making it move around. When I've gotten the tear as close to my face as I can, I inhale some of the smoke through my nose. It has a plant-like smell. The drug doesn't make me feel any different, nor does it change the environment around me.

My companions and I sit down on the metal mesh bleachers to watch a concert [or something like that]. As I sit down, I try to be careful not to get the string of my kite tangled up with the strings of my companions' kites.

There is a blue reusable shopping bag from Wal-Mart lying just to my left on the metal bleachers. It comes to life and starts wrapping its handles around my left arm and constricting its handles tightly, much like Devil's Snare from the Harry Potter universe. I'm not sure if this occurrence is a weed-induced hallucination or just ordinary dream weirdness. I look up and to my right at the dark-haired woman, who is sitting next to me. She looks back at me with an expression that communicates, “Yeah, this is what I was expecting would happen; how are you going to deal with it?”

I'm a little frightened by the shopping bag attacking me, but I'm still secure in the knowledge that this is a dream, so I'll be safe and sound when I wake up. I close my eyes and think to myself, Take me home. [By which I mean, “Take me back to the real world.”]

I then woke up for real, just as I had desired to do. I was amazed to discover that a full 6 ½ hours had passed since I'd gone to sleep. When I recalled my reaction to the opportunity to smoke marijuana, I laughed derisively at myself and thought, Oh, boy. I need to sort out my priorities.

-----------------------------------
Side notes:
It's certainly fitting that I dreamed about smoking marijuana on the morning of 4/20. I first learned about 4/20 from peers in college, but on a conscious level, I had completely forgotten about it until I found the “Happy 4/20!” thread on DreamViews this morning. My subconscious sure remembered, though. :-)

I've never tried marijuana in real life, so I can't compare the reality to the dream. That might also be why it didn't really make me feel any different: my brain doesn't really know what it's supposed to feel like to be under its influence. I have drunk alcohol in real life, but I haven't done so in a dream yet. If I ever do, I expect it will probably feel just like it does in reality.

I noticed something today: When I write dream journal entries, I write like a scientist. I write down what I've observed and compare my new observations to previous ones. Sometimes I draw conclusions from all these observations. Often, I perform experiments within the dream and report on their results.

5-9-06

I had my fourth last night. It wasn't as detailed as the first two, but more like the third. BUt like I have said before any LD means I am making progress.

The lucid part comes near the end of a very involved, very forgotten dream. I do remember that King Kong (yes, here he is again in my dreams) was chasing me. I was at the shore of a lake, and I ran into the water in a cove and tried to hide under the water under a lip on the rocks.

I realized that there was no way I could hold my breath long enough to make this a worthwhile hiding place. And then suddenly it hit me. Yes I could! I had read many people's LD where one of their dream signs was to breathe under water. I took a little breath. It worked. I was in a dream.

King Kong forgotten I flew up out of the water. But where was I? I was in a big dark room again (like LD #2). Instead of board games it was all lit up with black lights. It reminded me of the dark rides at Disneyland, where everything has a flourescent glow. I flew around for a little while inside the big room. I wanted to get outside, but I don't remember a lot of conscious thought like in my first two LD's.

I did remember thinking about other people's LD where they said "Clarity" to sharpen it up. I tried it. But I didn't get much of a change with that.

Then I remember thinking, "I'm going to wake up before anything good happens in this LD." And sure enough, I felt myself wake up. I watched as the room become light, and the flourescent lighting was gone, and I was in just a normal room. Of course, this was a False Awakening, but I didn't realize at the time.


At that point I went on to other non-lucid dreams. Because I didn't wake up, my recall isn't as good on this dream. And that's a good point--my first two LDs seem so clear and vivid. It may be because I woke up immediately after each of those dreams and wrote them down. The third and fourth aren't as clear. Both of those went on to other dreams before I was able to wake up and review the LD in my mind. I'm sure that makes a difference.

I need to try for more of the first kind.

12/16
My mother, sister, and I were planning on going somewhere that I did not want to. My mother convinces me to go by telling me that if we do, there might be presents there.

I breath underwater, notice that this is strange. The thought makes me uncomfortable so I come out.

I am very worried about my finances, I call my bank to talk to them about it. I am almost certain the service representative is Morgan Freeman.

I'm river rafting with a group on the backs of whales/fish/squid/leeches. The creatures swim down the river with one side of their bodies facing up, which turns from pink to silver in the sunlight. They turn over after a while, so we have to stay on top of them.

My creature is about to turn over, so I jump onto the shore and let it. I throw one smaller creature back into the river where it got caught somewhere. I watch a kid's creature turn over and throw him into the water. He comes up on the other side, laughing.

I'm back in the water, swimming on my own. I'm wearing running shoes, which really limits my swimming ability. We'll be hiking later though, so I can't go barefoot.

An enemy is on the shore, aiming something at our group. I'm swimming through fairly deep water, but I jump up and land a flying kick on the henchmen, knocking the gadget aside. There's another one farther into the forest, and I rush at him -

shift

I'm driving through one of the main intersections in Quickton. The stoplights facing me are blinking orange, the adjacent stoplights are blinking red. I drive through the intersection, thinking about the DC I'm trying to help / is helping me.

I'm biking down one of the pathways near my house. I wonder how I'm going to meet up with her again. On impulse, I pull out a blaster and shoot two Star Wars-esque red laser blasts into the sky. I consider that we should have used that as a signal. I shoot a couple more just to see what the range of visibility is.

The signal starts coming up elsewhere in the city. Sirens go off. Uh oh. I stow my blaster under my jacket (it's too long to sling across my back; the barrel pokes up under my collar) and quickly pedal home. I do have to wonder how video game characters manage this.

I end up in an oh so messed up version of my backyard. I'm setting my bike against a fence and am about to haul it over into my half of the back yard (it's a duplex), when, for no apparent reason, I realize that I'm dreaming.

I don't see a reason not to leave the bike where it is. I decide to play along with the dream and get rid of the gun, so I walk into the garden shed and hold the blaster up along the wooden wall. The wall folds out and clamps onto the gun, and when it folds back you wouldn't even know that we were stockpiling an armory. Then I stare at the inside of the shed for a moment, marvelling at the detail and how real this all seems. I can feel my body, the scratch of the jean jacket I'm wearing, my feet on the ground.

I shake myself out of it. I had plans for a lucid, right? I was going to... meet Walms. Right. Now, how am I supposed to get there?

Stepping out into the bright sunlight, I extend my right hand, intent on peeling through the layers of the dream. Something goes wrong; I can't feel them.

"What are you doing?"

There's a guy my age standing on the lawn in the back yard. Short blond-ish hair. Let's call him Derek (I haven't used that name yet, have I?). He doesn't look much different than I do in dreams. Similar clothing, too.

"You know what?" He says, when I don't answer, "I don't care. See ya."

Derek jumps through a hole in the lawn. It's shimmery, like a puddle, but it doesn't reflect the blue sky above. It reflects a different sky with a setting or rising sun, shot through with pink.

I jump through the puddle.

I hit sand on the other side, startling Derek. "Um, hi." I say.

"I wasn't expecting you to follow me," he admits.

"Yeah, well..." I look around, taking in the view. We're standing on a beach, looking out over a sunset. "Huh. I think I have a [desktop wallpaper] like this."



We spot another puddle in the sand. "You coming?" he asks me.

I nod.

We jump. The other side is more blue-tinged. It's still sandy, but everything is underwater.

"So, you've gotta be looking for something, right?"

I try to answer, but the words come out garbled.

Derek rolls his eyes. "You know this is a dream, right? You wouldn't have been able to follow me otherwise. You can still talk."

I take a breath, feel cool air enter my lungs. Breathe out, breathe in. I try again. "I'm looking for a guy who calls himself 'Walms'".

Derek looks at me, incredulous. "You don't even know where you're meeting him? Jesus. I could take you to a place, but I don't think I can help you find someone you don't even know."

False awakening. I feel the dream fall apart around me, and become aware of my body lying on the bed. There is bright white light everywhere, and I can still feel the remnants of the previous dream around me.

I fade back into the dream. I'm back in the dream-warped backyard, sitting on the lawn. Derek is standing beside me. I swear, if he rolls his eyes any more, they'll stick like that. I go over where I left my bike and lift it over the fence. Derek says something.

[I]Puddles. Scare Factor: 2. Reaction: Okay, Mr. Negativity.