All DJ Entries

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #32: Rollercoasters and REBMEVON

I'm in a bar confronting an 8-foot tall blonde man about why his biker gang threw rocks at me me in front of my parents' house. It's all too weird and soon I'm lucid. The dream feels really stable so I let him finish what he's saying before heading out the door. When I leave the bar, I discover that it's part of a closed-roof shopping center. I try to fly up to the 3rd story but end up floating horizontally across the floor. This time I try leaping off the floor instead. I overdo it, though, and blast all the way through the ceiling.

It's nighttime as I break through, and I fly high into the air, probably 1500-2000 feet up. The city is almost completely dark below me. I shout a grandiose, rather dorky "Let there be light!" and a wave of illumination bleeds over the city from bottom to top. I'm up very high so I see a lot of buildings passing by under me but I don't know what any of them are. For some reason, I think that I need to go back to my old school, so I say, "Show me the university." A group of buildings below starts to glow and I point myself toward it.

I swoop down toward the university buildings but rather than land, I transition immediately into a false awakening inside one of the dormitories. I'm in a small, virtually empty bedroom that I don't recognize. Vividness is very high now.

I step into the hallway and there's a girl sitting at a desk studying, her back to a screened window. She doesn't notice me, and I think about phasing through the window and escaping back out into the night. I try the phase and instead of feeling like I'm passing through liquid glass, my hand feels like it's ripping through a screen door. Shreddings of the screen are in my hand and the girl turns to look at me, saying, "What the hell are you doing?" I do the nose pinch reality check, a bit worried that I'm no longer dreaming.



She's making me feel embarrassed and self-conscious so I step into the next room to get away from her. This room's a study hall that has a narrow desk with hotel stationery and a white pen on it. The hotel stationery has indentations on it like somebody has written on it before. I can't see what the person wrote, but the indentations look similar to my own handwriting! The effect is so realistic that I nose pinch and finger-through-palm RC one after the other. I remember the Task of the Month (write "November" spelled backwards), so I sit down at the desk, grab the pen, and start writing. With vividness so high, my confidence is really solid. I immediately write down "REBMEVON" all the way through and the letters come out correctly (unlike last time.)

Satisfied, I get up from the desk and follow an exit sign through a double door. I stumble into a shabby bedroom where a mother, father, and school-age daughter are sleeping on scattered mattresses. The father wakes up and looks at me, bleary-eyed and displeased. "How'd you get in here?" I want to explain about the exit sign but instead decide to just get out of there. Another exit sign points me toward an external door, and I gladly slip out.

It's daytime now and I step out into a huge carnival that's been set up in a mall parking lot. The rides are elaborate, though, and more like what you'd see in an amusement park: things like rollercoasters and swing carousels. Lines of people are waiting for rides and it's inconvenient to get around on foot. I try to fly over these lines but I go too low and have to step on some heads as I pass. Some of the DCs shout or curse at me as I go.



I get up into the air and start circling around the swing carousel, flying alongside the riders. Most of the DCs ignore me but one lady keeps pointing and repeatedly saying, "Holy crap!" After making a couple of cycles, I decide that I want to go for the other advanced Task of the Month, bringing a soul back from Purgatory. I've envisioned it as being placed in the oceans of the southern hemisphere, where Dante put it. I use the sun to get my bearings and then fly south, heading over a Macy's. A blonde kid with dreadlocks looks up at me as I fly overhead and the dream ends soon afterward.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #30: Fire Escape

I'm leading a group of perhaps a dozen small children down a fire escape. We're on the third floor, there's no railing (!), and the kids are wandering everywhere. I'm holding hands with two of them and trying desperately to corral the others with my feet. My anxiety level is out of sight and I don't know how to get them down safely. To my horror, a pair of the kids wander off of the unrailed fire escape, falling to the ground below. One of the fallen kids seems to hurt his ankle and the other gets a huge gash on his arm. I scoop the rest of the kids up under my arms and run down to the bottom, grateful that they're not more badly hurt.

Later, Wife and I are standing on a viewing platform at the top of a skyscraper. It's night and I'm leaning against the railing, recounting to her what happened, still feeling really rotten. I tell her, "It was like some kind of nightmare..." I get suspicious, perform a nose pinch RC and now I have it all figured out.

I'm overjoyed not only to be lucid but also that nobody actually got hurt and none of that earlier stuff even happened. I float up and then fly off into the night, forgetting entirely to say goodbye to Wife. I fly over the city, circling around another skyscraper before banking left. Ahead of me is an empty bridge that crosses a bay. I fly under it, performing a high-speed barrel roll as I go. It feels amazing, but as I emerge from under the bridge, my vision goes completely dark.

I'm still flying, though. I can feel cool air rushing past my body, so I just go with it, flying blind for a while. I don't want to lose my lucidity so I start belting out songs that talk about flying. I think that I may have mostly performed Foo Fighters' "Learn to Fly" but I sometimes suffer from musical confusion in lucid dreams. Whatever song it was, I was really going for it and I became vaguely worried that my sleeping body might be singing too.

I suddenly find myself standing in our master bedroom, no longer in flight. The room's dark and Wife is asleep on her side of the bed, but I'm not fooled. Still dreaming. For some reason, I drag our bookcase out into the middle of the room to see how realistic it feels. (Very.) But then I worry that Wife will get up to go the bathroom and run into it, so I shove it back into place.

I float downstairs and head to the back door. I know that it's deadbolted shut, so I phase through, the glass pane chilling my skin like cool water. I remember that I want to find Purgatory for the Task of the Month. I imagine as Dante described it -- as a terraced mountain located somewhere in the seas of the southern hemisphere. I take flight again and start looking for it. I realize now that I flew north instead of south... oops! Somehow I wind up flying into a huge cavern that takes me downward into a sewer, where I'm soon lost.

Rather than flowing with things, I become alarmed and want to find my way out of this "mess" to get back on track. The ceilings are low so I'm forced to run through the (fortunately quite pristine) sewer water. There's daylight somewhere up ahead and I race through twisting, turning passageways to find it.

I finally spot a hole in the ceiling up ahead with daylight streaming through it (is it daytime now?) Unfortunately, along with the daylight, a steady stream of enormous, squealing rats is pouring in through the hole as well. They come right for me, and I'm not thinking clearly enough to come up with a clever plan. I punch the rats in the head or their potato-like bodies when they draw near, and each time I do the rat flops limply onto its back, not moving.

I'm almost to the hole when Erik Estrada himself steps in front of me, telling me to stop. I've unfortunately gotten swept up into caveman mode and I summon a weapon with which to fight Erik Estrada. Fortunately, I look at my right hand and discover that the "weapon" I summoned is just a modest zucchini squash. As the dream fades, I tell Erik Estrada that I am "really sorry about that", but he doesn't seem to hear.

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

I'm flying through a large, rectangular, exhibit-hall-like space with an entryway connected to one end of it. Every time I make a complete loop through the exhibit hall, out into the entryway, and then back into the exhibit hall again, the scenery and displays in the hall have changed. While I'm flying through the entryway after a couple of iterations of this, I catch on to the fact that I'm dreaming.

I remember that I need to stabilize and ground myself in the dream, so I will myself to go down. I sink straight down, in an upright position, until I'm standing on the floor. I immediately walk over, reach out, and touch one of the walls, then squat down to touch the carpet. The thought of licking the floor to bring in that sense crosses my mind. [I was reading a thread on DV before I went to bed that mentioned engaging all five of your senses in a dream.] I decide not to, but thinking of things you should do in a dream brings to mind the current Task of the Month: spell “November” backwards.

While still squatting down, I start tracing the shapes of the letters on the carpet with my finger. R...e...b...m...e...v...o...n. I get all the way through it, and feel very proud and pleased with myself. I feel just as alert and self-aware as I do in waking life, but I notice that it's slightly more difficult to keep track of the letters and what order they go in than it would be if I were awake. Then, I suddenly find that I have a ballpoint pen in my hand [a plain black Bic pen with a grip, the exact same kind I'd just been using in real life to do my homework for a class]. I take the pen and print “Rebmevon” on the wallpaper on the nearest wall. It's still a little hard to focus on spelling. At first, I write an “e” in place of the last “o,” but then I cross it out and correct it. I write it a second time [I think] because I can, but then I think, Okay, now you're just doing it to be a smartass.

[There was more, but I only have time to write the part that has to do with the Task of the Month right now.]

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #28: REBMEVON rejected

I'm watching as Breaking Bad's Walter White (dressed as Heisenberg) plans to set fire to a Jeep full of laughing teenagers. He pours gasoline all over the kids in the car but they don't react, somehow not understanding what's going on. I'm panicked and horrified and feel like I can't let him get away with this. The intense emotion makes me lucid and the scene vanishes.

Now I'm sitting in what looks like a log cabin, staring at a simple television that's no longer switched on. I see daylight through a nearby doorway so I run outside, passing through a short alleyway before I emerge in a grassland with mountains on the distant horizon. It's a beautiful scene and I'm so relieved to be free of the nightmare that I start flying.

I've been in the air for only a couple of seconds when the Task of the Month occurs to me -- I need to write "November" backwards. I've created a mnemonic device that instantly brings the correct word ("REBMEVON") to mind. (My chosen mnemonic device is my friend Von introducing himself to Reba McIntyre.)

I try to produce a pen and paper from behind my back but only manage a pen at first. I try writing on my hand but can only fit "REB". That won't do, so I do another "behind the back" object creation to get a notebook. I try to write the word but end up getting sudden strings of garbage characters like "REBhjklhlhlh". I scratch it out and try again, but only get a similar string of garbage characters as soon as I get past "REB".

I can see the word perfectly in my mind so the garbage character problem starts making me feel agitated and doubtful. It's not long before I wake up.

This was good fun, in spite of failing at nearly everything I tried, becoming obsessed with a hopeless task, and losing my pants.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #24: Pants Gone with the Wind

Wife has sent me to a restaurant to find out whether they recycle "#19 plastic". I'm just about to ask the cashier this inane recycling question when I see that a nearby table has our diaper bag and Wife's wallet sitting unguarded on top of it. I hurry over to pick all this stuff up and see Wife herself standing a few feet away. I recognize all of this for the weird nonsense that it is and tell Wife that I'm having a lucid dream. "Okay," she says, and wanders off.

I turn back toward the cashier to find that she and the register are gone, replaced by a bunch of school lunch tables jammed together in a tight rectangle. I skirt around these and head to the back of the cafeteria. High up, a bit outside of my reach is a large window showing an overcast day outside. I float up in order to phase through it like I did last dream but this time my hands just bounce off of it. I float back down to the ground and look for a door, not wanting get hung up on this.

There's a pair of doors equipped with crash bars to my left. I shove my way through and emerge outside under a cloudy, gray sky. To the right, I see a huge gathering of runners and spectators for some sort of foot race. I'm intrigued and I jog toward it, deciding that I want to compete.

I become very aware of my clothing as I run and I notice that I'm wearing shorts without a belt. The shorts are too big for me and they keep trying to slide down off of my hips. I hike them up once and then do my best to ignore them. I'm surprised to find that I'm also wearing some kind of baseball cap. I remove it and see that it's black with a Papa John's style logo that instead reads "Papa Go's". (I know something's wrong with this name but can't figure out what.)

The race starts when I'm about 30 feet away, runners ranging from hardcore 30-year-olds to 4-year-old kids setting off on the race. They stream through a huge pizza-decorated starting banner that reads "The Papa Go's Race". Since I want to win and also wow the crowd I take to the air, flying about 20 feet up. But the moment that I catch up with the other runners, a sharp gust of wind kicks up against me, stopping me dead.

I'm determined to participate in this race so I stubbornly imagine a fresh wind blowing from the opposite direction. This gives me a huge, exhilarating kick forward. But before long, the current of wind that's against me shoves back even harder and I'm stuck again. I force my own wind to blow even harder but the opposing wind rises to a shrieking gale.

I feel stubborn and unbeatable, though, and I keep pouring on more power. But the howling wind rips my pants away and I suddenly feel much, much less "unstoppable" with no pants. Tears stream from the corners of my eyes and cold wind blasts down my throat. Trees are swaying crazily below me and DCs are running in panic. It dawns on me that I've started something I can't finish. Moments later, I'm awake.

This failed "Task of the Month" attempt ended up being a great time. I'm so happy to be getting more flight time after all of the trouble that I had with this initially. I was sure that I was doing to meet a Dreamviews member in this one but it just didn't quite happen!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #23: Halloween in the Sky Fortress

I'm walking through the mall with my friend T. We encounter a scrawny old man that I recognize (wrongly) as a professor at the university that T and I attended together. The "professor" excitedly describes his latest invention -- a self-propelled wheelchair that is guided and powered by your mind. With that, one of these wheelchairs pops out of an unseen hole in the floor, scoops T up, and starts racing around with him.

T shouts in protest, insisting that his legs work fine. I decide that this is completely insane and I become lucid. I ignore T and the professor, and they lapse into silence. I can see daylight coming in from around a corner so I start moving toward the exit, making my way through a food court that's packed with dream characters. Sprinting toddlers and their harried parents crisscross my path but always move aside in time for me to pass. I'm tempted to check out the food but my desire to get outside is stronger.

When I reach the automatic glass doors they don't open. For some reason, this doesn't worry me and I press my left hand straight through the glass. (I think that I owe this to reading about all of melanieb's phasing yesterday.) I phase the rest of my body through as well, feeling a slight chill as I pass through.

When I get outside, it's parking lot as far as the eye can see. The day is mild and breezy and all I can think of is what a perfect day it is for flying. I float up nicely but get hung up in the mall's entrance overhang. There are a few moments of grinding where for some reason I have trouble turning my perspective. Fortunately I manage to force myself sideways just far enough that I break free and shoot up into the sky.

Straight ahead there are hills shrouded in fog. I'm eager to avoid turning so I fly toward the fog, imagining that in these hills is the neighborhood where all of the Dreamviews folks are. (I want to perform the "trick or treat" Task of the Month.) As I near the fog, the wind increases to a howl, pushing upward and against me. Rather than force forward progress, I imagine that I am going the wrong way and that this wind is trying to guide me to the real Dreamviews neighborhood.

I turn with the wind and it carries me upward the way that a thermal column lifts a condor. This feels amazing! I'm being carried toward some kind of sky fortress. The "sky fortress" is an enormous collection of buildings connected by a tangle of walkways and I know that this must be where the Dreamviews neighborhood is. Dream characters move unafraid along the narrow, unrailed walkways and I see guards armed with rifles patrolling some of the paths and rooftops.

I arrive at a row of townhouses. Above the front door of each townhouse floats bubble letters that spell out the owner's name. The row stretches as far as I can see in either direction and most of the names are unfamiliar to me. I do see "Xanous" above one of the doors and I fly toward it, imagining that there's a huge DV party going on in there.

The door has a television screen in front of it that seems to show what's going on inside the house. I'm astonished that the screen displays a prairie dog splashing around in a big bathtub. "Xanous?" I ask. The prairie dog stares at me, a bit shocked. He barks, "Phil doesn't just open the door for anyone who knocks!" I can feel myself growing confused but don't know how to regain my composure. "Are you some kind of bodyguard? Are there Dreamviews people in there?" But the dream is beginning to unravel and soon I'm awake.

Political dream 10/12

There was this huge building, it had about 3-4 floors but the shape resembled the worlds largest round barn in Marshfield, Wisconsin. It had many glass windows with futuristic feel to it. My mom and dad were downstairs, listening to Mitt Romney speak. In this timeline Mitt Romney had become President. I was on the second floor listening to Mitt Romney's brother, Scott. He was doing a press briefing for Mitt. I was impressed that he could answer every question given to him so well. Apparently he knew his brother better than Mitt knew himself. Throughout the press briefing Scott's phone kept ringing. I don't remember him answering it. He just held this large dinosaur of a cell phone in his hand and made witty comments about it any time it rang. He was interesting to listen to, but eventually I got bored and went downstairs to see if mom and dad were done yet.

Short Lucidity 10/13

My aunt and uncle visited our house. They were looking at how different it was since they were last there. I was lounging on the double recliner in our living room which I normally use while browsing my laptop. My relatives were in awe of how beautiful our house was, which was odd. Our house isn't all that special in waking life. I never actually saw much of the house in the dream but it did indeed seem fancier than normal. I got up and found myself in a covered porch. It had a really nice glass roof and the walls were made of logs. I then went outside with my family, continuing the tour. While listening to their conversation I suddenly realized I was dreaming. I have no clue how I knew, but once I noticed I flew straight into the air. Both fists facing the sky I decided "Why not fly to outer space?" I looked down and the ground was so far away. I felt amazed by how easy it always is to fly, then out of nowhere I slam to the ground. I fall so quickly I am thinking "I am dreaming, but I will hit the ground so hard I may die. What is going to happen?" I blacked out for a second, and got back up. I felt sick out of nowhere, but decided to fly back into the air. I got a short distance up and the dream ended.
When I stated I felt sick, it is funny because when I woke up I felt really sick. I had a runny nose, headache, soar throat. I guess my symptoms started showing in my lucid. It is better now two days later, I have just a runny nose now, but still pretty interesting to note.

Superhero dream 10/15

I remembered more about this dream once I woke up but I have not been thinking about the dream at all today so that may affect my recall.
I had spider-man's powers, a stranger had super strength, and my brother had some other superhero's powers. My main goal personally, as well as others was to get, or rather make, swords. I had mine perfectly planned out, what materials it would be made of, the colors, the size, the shape. I don't believe I ever got the full sword sadly, but I recall messing with my powers. I would swing webs to a tall building, and stick on the side of it. I could hear the stranger and my brother talking from inside the building. I don't remember what they were saying, but their conversation led me to believe they were villains. I then tried to see how many webs I could shoot at once. I sent two, then a third, and the first disappeared. I then heard some cops arriving, and swung away to avoid confrontation.

Not sure if it was the same dream or not, but later me and my brother were at home and it was night time. I heard a sound outside which turned out to be our mother making a surprise visit. We had something out in the open in the house that made us having powers dead obvious. Whatever it was must have been something only a super would have. We quickly hid the item and sat in our respective spots on the dual recliner as if nothing happened just as our she walked in. She was none the wiser of who or what we were.

R18 WARNING

Travel to a province. Rent a room. We are going to have a shoot. Foursome. It starts with me and a girl then two guys enter the scene. I can't get hard on the girl. I told them not to upload to YouTube, and no penetration without condom. I'd really rather touch the boys. One looks Asian.

[I am immortal]

The other is unclear. Parade. I'm trying to use a condom. It was too soft. It ripped. Asked them now to put it on. A small town. Trying to get to Rob's old place, but the area is flooded. Can't get there. He no longer lives there. FF meeting. Missed it. The take for the porn film.

I am flying, trying to avoid a lot of black things. They seem to be chasing me. Everywhere I go, they circle and trap me. I can't seem to control my flight properly. A game? Friendly. I can't avoid them afurther. They are close. They look like the kid angels with swords. I swing my sword at them but missed. They me through with their sword. Two angels. I seem to have hit one with my wild swing, or so they told me.

I told the porn videographer that I don't believe in love. They said they should add(?) me on in a group that talks about those stuff.

I finally made it into space! Even though I had no idea how to handle myself once I got there, the fact that I flew up there was a huge milestone. Before this, stable flight had been a bit elusive for me. Big step forward!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #20: The Unprepared Astronaut

I'm a graduating senior in college, following around a guy who seems to think we're close friends. I feel pretty guilty because I have no memory of him at all. I'm accompanying him so he can say his post-college goodbyes to his girlfriend. We meet her outside of a dormitory, and I recognize her as a girl that I know from high school. I recognize how weird this is and quickly find myself lucid.

Both of the dream characters freeze in place, looking into one another's eyes. I decide to leave the love birds alone while I take another pass at Task of the Month. (In this case, I'm going to be trying to remove my head and replace it with a pumpkin.) I try to will a mirror onto the outer dormitory wall but nothing appears.

I remember how much more dream control success I have when I'm detailed and thorough. I try again, this time imagining an ornate mirror that's been worn by time, the paint on its frame beginning to chip and flake off. This time I get my mirror!

I look into the mirror but it's dirty and cloudy-looking. The reflection looks like a shirtless me but it's very hard to make out any detail. I wipe at the mirror but it just doesn't make any difference. Rather than get hung up here and waste a lucid dream doing glass-cleaning, I decide to spend my time trying out other things.

I leave the grounds of the dormitory and head out onto a quiet, empty street. The morning feels chilly and the city is covered with a blanket of fog. I wonder what this fog looks like from above, so I decide to try flying above it. This time, I focus on the little details. The chill of humid air against my fingertips. The breeze flowing past my hair and tickling my scalp. Concentrating on these sensations leaves me no time for doubt and I smoothly rise up into the fog.

The fog swallows me whole as I rise. I wonder how long it will take me to pierce it. I feel myself going faster and faster and soon I'm rocketing up through the atmosphere. The fog never seems to end and I feel like I must be high above the Earth.

Suddenly I break through into blackness. I stop rising, my momentum suddenly gone. I'm in the blackness of space and the fog is now a floor below me. I realize that it isn't just the city that was covered in fog -- it's the entire planet. I am able to breathe but I somehow can't keep myself from doing so in these desperate, shallow gasps.

My flight abilities have stopped working and my arms and legs flail helplessly. I will myself a pair of rocket shoes but I get confused trying to work the lever that turns them on. I start losing my cool and my breathing becomes even gaspier until I wake up.

Awake/SP, Lucid, [Commentary made while awake]

I'm in an elaborate, fantasy landscape. I fall over the side of a cliff and start falling down the side of a mountain, which has terraces in it and lots of trees, but the trees are all growing out of the side of the mountain. As I fall, I think, I could expect there to be a soft, grassy field below me for me to land on, and there would be one. I try to do exactly that, but it doesn't work. Eventually, I remember that I can fly, and fly back up to the top of the cliff/mountain.

[That's all I can remember now of an awesome, detailed, elaborate lucid dream that was remarkably long for my first sleep cycle of the night. I was really, really determined to have a lucid dream last night, and my determination and MILDing worked. I also remember choosing to stay in and prolong the dream at least twice, but I don't remember any more details. I really should have taken a moment to write them down in my paper dream journal after I woke up.]

[Later, different part of the night.] I feel, more clearly and with more awareness than I ever have before, all my major muscles transitioning into their paralyzed state. After a moment, a dream begins to form. Some Viking-warrior-looking guys who look like they came straight out of a movie by Aardman Animations are standing over me, watching me wake up. We're all in a big wooden hall. The dream is very weak, fuzzy, and indistinct, though, and although I try to focus on it, it fades away before I can get into it fully. This can be partially blamed on the fact that I'm completely fascinated by the experience I've just had, and this novel feeling of being “stuck” in my sleeping body while still being consciously aware.

Welcome to SP, I think. That wasn't so bad, was it? I lie still and observe the experience. Although I'm conscious, in a way I never am in waking life, of my breathing happening automatically, I feel like I'm not getting enough air. I realize that that's because I have my forearms crossed over my chest so that their dead weight is resting right on top of my ribcage. I can feel my left-hand fingertips touching the skin of my right arm, but I feel removed from the sensation. I hope for another dream to start, but it doesn't. I attempt to visualize a scene, but it's a very halfhearted effort and doesn't go anywhere. Also, I have my head tilted to my right at an awkward angle, which makes me think, I'm going to feel that in the morning. After a few minutes, I get bored and decide to get up and use the restroom. I have no problem getting back to normal wakefulness.

Side notes:
I've always been afraid to try WILDing because I'd never experienced sleep paralysis, and I was afraid that I might experience hypnagogic hallucinations or sensations that would frighten me. This was the first time I'd ever really experienced SP. It was cool and weird, but not frightening at all, and I didn't experience any hypnagogic hallucinations. Getting over your fear of something is always nice.

(This is a catch-up post. This dream took place on the night of August 22-23, 2012.)

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

My mom and I are watching a play together. The play features a girl and a creepy, life-sized puppet that is designed to be a body double of her. I see that $OfficeBoss is there, watching the play with his family. Then, my mom and I go out to the parking lot and drive away in the same car together, even though we both have cars there. We can only start one of our cars, not the other one, because neither of us has the right key for that one.

I'm in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area on vacation, visiting my good friend, JM. I have my own car [which I never do when I go to visit him, because I always fly there and get rides around town with him and his friends - this should have been my first clue that I was dreaming, but it wasn't], and I'm driving east along the freeway, heading in the direction of JM's house. The scenery around me is incredibly beautiful and lush, with lots of desert plants.

JM and I are hanging out in a bar together, totally chilling out on a sofa. I'm drinking a beer that someone else abandoned on a table. We walk out of the bar, which is located in a shopping mall. As we're on our way out of the mall, we find another friend of ours, ET [a human - yes, those are his initials], in another of the mall's shops. I realize it's him when I hear his voice. A bunch of our friends are with us now. ET hugs everyone in the group (myself, JM, CF, and a couple of others), except for RD. RD doesn't want to be hugged, and uses her fingers to climb up the side of a door to get away from ET. ET tickles her on the small of her back instead.

I'm walking through a beautiful Arizona landscape of desert farms, and at this point, I finally realize that I'm dreaming. I focus on the fact that the guard dogs that many of the farms have cannot really hurt me when I'm in a dream. I run away from one of them by flying straight up, and then start flying over the lovely scenery, admiring it. Looking southwest, I can see downtown Phoenix, which has skyscrapers and a giant stone head with a big, wide-open mouth. Just after I've started flying, my alarm goes off and wakes me up.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #15: A Leaf on the Wind

Wife and I are staying in this huge, luxurious hotel room somewhere on vacation. It's daylight outside. Wife is putting away groceries in the hotel fridge but all I want to do is sleep. I curl up in the bed and nap. Seconds later, though, I'm awake and Wife is still putting away groceries.

I'm frustrated that my nap was so short and I nose pinch RC out of habit. I'm astonished that I am actually able to breathe. I blow it off, assuming that I simply didn't pinch hard enough. On the second try I get a deep, clear breath and I'm dragged into lucidity.

I want to get out of the room and go for Task of the Month (swim in the Cretaceous-era sea.) I tell Wife that I'm having a lucid dream and that I need to leave for a while. She looks skeptical. "You and your dreams. What about our vacation?" I tell her that I'll try to get back after I finish up but I know it's very, very unlikely that I'll be able to make a roundtrip across millions of years back. Better than her getting eaten by a mosasaur. Wife asks me to "at least help me put away the groceries" but I leave before she can suck me back into the dream plot. Even though I know it's a dream I feel guilty leaving all the work for her to do.

Daylight is streaming through the door at the end of the hallway and I walk outside. There's a wobble in my vision as I cross the threshold. I paw my hands through my hair and lick my arm and the dream scene snaps back into stability.

It's clear and cool like midday in Northern California. Across a broad field of grass I see a river snaking its way toward the horizon. I imagine that this river leads to the Cretaceous ocean and will myself to rise up into the air and fly. The wind buffets me as I soar into the air and my dream body feels light, insubstantial, and kite-like. I rise higher and higher into the air and tantalizingly I see the sparkle of the sea maybe just a mile further along the river.

I will myself to fly toward the ocean but the wind is just tossing me around as I rise higher into the air. I have no more mass than a leaf or a piece of paper. I try imagine that I have on rocket shoes but they just make this weak fizzling noise and the wind noise increases to a roar. Frustration gets the best of me and I either lose lucidity or fade to oblivion.

I was in an office building where there was a huge party going on at the time, and then i kicked out and I had this thing that allowed me to kinda float through the air, if I pushed the button in the air. So, I was forced away from the party and I was extremely far away at that time. I was with a tv show character, Barney from How I met your Mother, and we were on a mission to get back to the party because there was some sort of scandal going on there. We were extremely far away, and we saw a building that was a lot quieter than it, but we decided to check it out, just in case. It appeared to be an abandoned building with maybe CIA agents working in it, only on one office near the top floor. Me and Barney evacuated it quickly. We began to walk again looking for it, and we though we saw the lights coming from the direction it was. I used the thing to float to get over there at high speeds, and I realized it was there. I went back for Barney and he was in an outdoor mall at the time. I got him and we prepared to use the mechanism to fly over there, as soon as I woke up.

This was a pretty cool dream, it's just extremely unfortunate that was an entire beginning to this dream that I don't really remember besides the ending. Also, there was more to the beginning of this I don't remember very well.

Easily my favorite lucid dream. Ironically, began as a lucid nightmare. Very satisfying and got about 10 minutes out of it.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #6: Seaside Escape (July 24, 2012)

Wife and I are walking along a wharf late at night with a man that we believe is our friend. I begin to realize that this man is not who he says he is and I'm growing more and more agitated. Suddenly, Wife screams, "It’s a setup! We’re being ambushed! Run!" and tears off running ahead of me.

I run after her and I hear the footsteps of our pursuers behind me. There are now many of them after us and this has become a full-blown nightmare. I know that the men behind me intend to kill us both.

Wife is running along the wharf ahead of me but she's approaching its end (or at least a bend) that leads straight into the ocean. We have nowhere left to go and I become lucid.

I run forward faster and faster to catch up with her. As my speed increases, I realized that I am soaring a couple of feet above the ground. I catch her under the arms and jumped up into the sky with her, flying several hundred feet into the air. We fly together over the ocean, splashing down far away from the wharf and our pursuers. The sea is choppy but it's a beautiful night. I'm completely unafraid.

I jump several more times until we end up in shallower water by a brightly-lit, festive boardwalk. The water is crowded with swimmers. It’s still night and we swim together through the crowd. I look closely at the faces of these other swimmers as we pass by. Vivid, detailed and varied, often with literally dozens of dream characters in the scene at once. I study them all, enjoying their detail. Most of them look like realistic people but one child has a very large head with an exceptionally large chin and lips. I commit his face to memory because it is so notable. He has curly blonde hair and somewhat pale skin.

We emerge from the water into the boardwalk’s shopping area, which looks very much like a mall food court. This area, too, is bustling with dream characters. I realize that I’ve lost track of Wife now. I feel that she’s safe and has to be nearby. At this point I sense I am at risk of being drawn too much into the "dream plot" and start talking to the characters around me, telling them that I am having a lucid dream.

I stop at a coffee shop. The girl who is the cashier there presides over a display case of poppy seed muffins. I feel bold and pushy so I tell the cashier that "This is my dream and you will do what I say!" Her hands drop to her sides and she looks ahead, suddenly no longer independently animated. I tell her to leave the cash register and walk out into the food court. She does. Some other DCs are watching, seemingly unsure what to make of this. I'm deciding whether to try to turn the cashier into Wife or try to see how many dream characters I can control at once.

A feeling of frailty suddenly sweeps over me and my voice becomes a whisper. Moments later, I'm awake.

This was just a great LD. I was riding high for days from this one.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #4: Flight-time Performance Anxiety (July 16, 2012)

I'm chatting with an old friend at a party who's into lucid dreaming (IWL as well as in this dream.) I tell him how things are starting to come together for me and I thank him for his help and advice. Another DC engages my friend in conversation and I wander a few feet away, for some reason deciding that I should listen to my iPod.

I try to plug the headphones into my iPod but discover that there is no headphone jack. At first, I'm suspicious that my friend has switched iPods with me but I stop when I realize how ridiculous this accusation is. I perform the nose pinch RC and become lucid. I excitedly tell my friend that apropos of our previous conversation, I'm having a lucid dream right now. He's pleased and doesn't mind when I wander away to start experimenting.

My first goal in this dream was to compare the quality of dream imagery to that of modern video games. The moment I remember this goal, a tapestry or painting on the wall suddenly changes to a gameplay movie of the early 90s shooter "DOOM". (Okay, subconscious, I'll admit that was a cute trick.) I note that the floor and ceiling are very bland with almost no texturing. The walls, furniture, and dream characters, however, are photo-realistic, well beyond what I see in video games.

I announce to the dream characters in the room that this is my lucid dream and they are about to see some flight. I attempt to jump up for flight but simply bounce off of the ceiling. Some of the dream characters cut their eyes at one another in an "is this guy for real?" way. I attempt a second jump, bounce off of the ceiling and go careening into a visibly annoyed girl with short hair and glasses. She shoves me away and I go for a third attempt, yielding one more embarrassing failure.

I rub my hands and arms to restabilize then consider having a huge storm rip the ceiling off the house so that I can salvage my reputation. Before things can get really fun, I wake up.