All DJ Entries

So, I won't be able to smoke anything, for a little while, so my recall is already kicking back in (which will probably mean taking much more time to write out my entries, but I'll do what I can). I also need to find a thread I read a few days back, about a DV member proposing a WBTB method where you do some logic puzzles, while awake, to keep the logic center in your brain slightly active, when going back to bed.

I intend to thank him, because I've tried it twice, in the past 3 nights, and have gotten lucid on both nights! I just can't seem to find the thread, but I will keep looking. Anyway, I've had some pretty crazy ones, in the past couple of days!)

10/23/2014
"Inception-Style"

Spoiler for Short Version!:

Summary:
After our failed attempt at a round of sex, a girl presented an Inception-like device, through which we (as well as the other friends hanging out in the house) could share a dream. I became lucid in this 'secondary' dream world; did some supernatural acrobatics and a DBZ power-up; met a two-faced man; had a battle with some powerful entity (that I don't remember) and embarrassed myself, numerous times, with powers that wouldn't work properly.

There was a girl with me. I believe it might have been my ex, MJ, but I'm not sure. We were in an apartment or small house, with a few other people and a couple of kids. She and I were alone, though, tucked away in some room and about to have a some discrete sex, but she had to get up and take care of something, before getting started. When she walked out of the room, another girl came in and immediately began seducing me. My previous companion and I weren't really a couple, in this dream, so I began fooling around with this other girl, but we never ended up going too far because neither of us had protection. After a little more anti-climactic foreplay, we went out into the living room again, and hung out with everyone who remained in the house.

After a few minutes, the girl that I had most-recently been with said that she wanted to try something and disappeared into the bedroom again, emerging with some sort of device in tow. She explained that it was some Inception-like device, and would allow us to share a dream. Each hose that came out from the device was topped with four-pronged syringes, which she stuck into our arms. I was a little apprehensive, but it ended up not hurting very much. Before long, we were all passing out, and the scenery transitioned.

We were now in a wooded area and surrounded by beautiful, autumn colors. Specks of red and orange leaves covered the grass, fallen from the thin, scattered trees, and we took a while just soaking in the scenery. There were a few locals running around, but they didn't pay us much mind. Everything was just beautiful, though. The environment almost seemed ancient, or at least Feudal-Japan-esque.

My 'crew' and I were apparently searching for something [color](though I have no idea what)[/color], and I remembered that we had to go into the dreamworld, to get it. Looking around, I realized that I had been thinking I was still in the waking world, but also that we had all just taken the dream serum and went to sleep. So, I wondered, did that mean I was already in the dream world? But, then, I thought about the dream serum itself - how absurd that was. I figured that that meant all of this might have been a dream. Everything was just so vivid, though. I couldn't be sure that I was dreaming, as I felt completely grounded in reality. I tried toying with the gravity a bit, and leaned backward as if I was going to 'force' myself to not topple over. It didn't work. I lost my balance, stumbled a bit and fell on my ass. Figures. Slightly embarrassed at this, I got up and continued to walk with my group, about to give up on the idea that I might be dreaming.

Giving it one, last try, I took a slight hop into the air, using every bit of my concentration to 'pull up', before coming back down. My feet fixed themselves above the ground, hovering just about a foot over the leafy terrain. I was flying! "Ah...there it is..." I said, smiling and fully-lucid. For the next minute or so, I did some superhuman acrobatics and parkour in this lovely, wooded area - performing high, twisting somersaults and short-range flying/floating up into the treetops.

I began to notice there was a commotion going on, with the locals. A group of men came running passed, saying that they were under attack by some powerful, unknown entity. I don't remember much of the frenzied briefing they gave, but I told them not to worry, seeing as how this was my dream and I was now in control. To prove it (more to myself, than to them), I raised one foot and then stomped it down on the ground, yelling "RRRRAAAAAAHHHHH!!!" and expelling a massive burst of energy out, in all directions, DBZ style. The men recoiled as the wind blew them backward, nearly off their feet. It was then that I could see that one of the men actually had two faces - his normal face, and one that was kinda 'stuck' to the left side of his head. It was slightly gruesome, and very surreal.

Content that I had a good level of control, I prepared to do battle with whomever it was that was soon to be approaching our position. Figuring I could use a little DC help, I asked if any of the strange men had any 'dream control' powers of their own. I then realized how pointless my question was, and just went off to find my unknown opponent figuring that any DC, who wanted to help, would tag along.

Unfortunately, I don't remember anything about the battle...

We were soon coming back to the previous area, and I was talking to the DCs about lucid dreaming, just to see their reactions. I tried to show off a little, by doing the 'falling back' thing, again. It still didn't work, and I fell....again. They laughed and me, and I have to be honest when I say it upset me a bit, even though I was still lucid. I tried a few other tricks, but my 'powers' seemed like they were starting to leave me. 'MJ' finally showed back up, around this time, and said that we had to get back to where we originally started, as the dream was about to end. She led the way and we began walking back to the starting point of the dream (The rest of the crew had disappeared, by now, and it was just 'MJ' and I.) I noticed that she was moving faster and faster, among the trees while she led, and I was finding it hard to keep up. I attempted to use some lucid super-speed, to catch up to her, but everything just felt so realistic. I couldn't control the dream anymore. No matter how hard I tried to 'rush' ahead, I could only run at normal speed.

Finally, I realized that I didn't really need to 'go' anywhere. I could just exit the dream from wherever I wanted. Figuring that the dream may have been going so long that it might be tough for me to remember much of it, I woke myself up.

This is an interesting lucid that happened about 40 minutes or so after first falling asleep. These are very unusual for me! Also had a much more nightmarish start than most of my lucids.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #247: Happier!

I’m standing by my pool, which looks distressingly green and nasty. While I’m stressing out about how this happened, a large snake comes slithering out of the pool toward me. “Whoa, are you kidding me?” I shout, running a few feet away toward a stone wall that’s about eight feet high. I scramble up to the top before the snake can get me. I notice that this felt easier than it should have, and I become lucid.

I let go of the wall and float away, my feet rotating gently upward until I’m lying on my back, looking up at the sky. I’m in some kind of miniature canyon, and the green water is now just a calm pond rather than my pool. I fly down toward the only exit, which seems to lead into a cave.

The cave interior is well-lit but feels sinister. The walls are stained red as if they’re covered with blood and strange growls echo off of the walls. Further down the slope I see dim, hulking figures shambling through the fog. I think that they look like zombies. I remember that I want to summon Dreamer but I want to wait until the environment becomes more pleasant.

I walk further down the slope and a huge, crazed-looking man with a black beard charges at me, his hands outstretched for my throat. That’s not real, I think, and I feel only a dull impact as he passes through me. Out loud, I say to Dreamer, “I know you’re here with me. I’ll call you in soon.” (I still don't want to call her in while the dream's still going all horror show on me.)

Another crazed figure charges me, decayed flesh hanging off of his face. Yuck! Why is this dream trying to be so scary? I turn away, knownig that he’ll pass right through me, and he does. I emerge from the cave into a large tiled room that looks like an industrial kitchen. About a dozen or so zombies are in here, rising up from the floor, shambling forward, and then collapsing with a sigh into a heap of bones. Then the cycle begins again. It’s gruesome to look at and I really want to fix it.

I decide that the zombies and I are all going to sing together! I come up with some song where the chorus goes, “Happier! Happier! Happierrrrrrrr!!” I belt it out with all I’ve got, and the zombies join in with me. Each cycle they look more and more normal, until after about 30-40 seconds, all of the zombies are now blond guys wearing shades, suits, and sporting 80s looking haircuts.

I keep singing with these guys for a while, really enjoying the turnaround of this dream. I realize that I should think about other goals, and as I’m making my way into the next room, the dream thins out and fades.

10/14/2014
Dream One
"Pirate Punishment"

I was boarding a ship with others. It looked to be a cruise ship, but smaller than the large vessels that you would normally see leaving from the cape. I don't remember where we were going, but there were quite a few people on the boat.

While out on the water, before even having gotten too far, our ship was attacked by 'pirates' (for lack of a better name). These guys were real bad news, and seemed as if they had just stepped out of the pages of a comic book. One of them was a dark-clad, helmeted, Darth Vader-looking s.o.b., and he was apparently the overlord of the group.

The majority of us were down in the ship's hull. The bay door was open, and these goons were ordering us all to surrender to them, or they were going to blow us out of the water. Though there were only a handful of these assailants, we could see that they had the weaponry to take us all out (some of them having metaphysical powers, as well). There was no way we would be able to stop them.

That's when I realized that I was dreaming.

Despite having planned to use my lucidity for other things - and never being one to shy away from lucid combat - I allowed the storyline to conduct me and stepped out onto the open rear hatch, eager to turn the tables on these guys. I assured the rest of the people that things were going to be just fine, since "this was just a dream" and "no harm could come to any of [them], anyway!" With that, I levitated out from the wide mouth of the ship's bay door, hovering over the still water of the harbor and squaring up in a position to where I could better face our would-be captors.

I don't remember too many details of the battle, but I was controlling my flight rather well, changing elevations over the water while evading the attacks from the group of baddies. A bit more action took place between me, the pirates and the passengers, but I don't recall much. Throughout the fight, there were a few times that I used telekinesis to sling my enemies in all directions, but the main thing I remember is facing off against one guy, in particular, that had a throwing knives or straight-razors, that he would throw at me. I don't remember if all of the pirates were able to fly, but I know this guy could. We had a good mid-air cat-and-mouse, and I kept flicking his projectiles away with TK, before they could reach me, guiding them with my hands outstretched, to mentally arc them around my body.

Finally, unexpectedly, he pulled out a large meat-cleaver and chucked it at me. Still on a telekinesis roll, I waved the weapon off to one side, but then imagined it spinning around behind me, hooking around from my other side and launching back at its previous owner. In a state of shock, the other guy didn't seem to know what to do. It tore through one of this legs, opening an enormous gash in his thigh. When he grabbed his leg and yelled in horror, I knew he was done.

With the still-spinning cleaver now hovering in the air, nearby, I turned to confront the rest of the invaders. Unfortunately, I don't remember anything passed this point.


Fragment Two
Untitled
I was on a ranch, and about to be taught to ride my first bull, just after seeing a more experienced rider get dumped on his ass. They had smaller, tamer bulls for us amateurs to ride, and I got a good look at mine, through the rails in the fence, while making my way to the pen. Smaller or not, I was preparing for the worst, and wasn't feeling all too confident as I climbed on his back and began to strap myself in...

All I remember.

Dream - Lucid

I was with a group of people. The next day, we were going to Africa. I'm not sure what the purpose of the trip was. I was supposed to be careful in certain areas, however, so I didn't catch any diseases.

Then, the next day, I was in Africa with this group of people. We were by a desert area. I was trying to remember how I had gotten there. I "remembered" before the flight, but I was drawing a complete blank for the flight. I could not, for the life of me, remember being on the plane!

~

I was in a classroom. I was sitting at a desk/table next to a guy. There were many students in the room. The teacher, a guy, was teaching. I had these workbooks, three I believe, and the teacher was telling us to do something with them, like go to a certain page or something. I was trying to follow the directions; I wanted to do well.

I then was driving up to my high school. It was morning. I looked at the front of it, and it looked like my elementary school, but it had my high school's name on it. I parked and started to walk in. I got almost to the door when I realized that I had forgotten my backpack. No matter, I'll just make it appear on my back. I tried to do that, and it made me realize that I was dreaming! I walked into the school and into a room. My brother was in there playing the piano I think? I don't know what we talked about, I can't recall, but I then wanted to make angel wings appear on my back. I looked at my brother and saw that he had these what looked like costume green fairy wings on his back. I concentrated on making the wings grow and then saw them coming off my back. They also looked like costume fairy wings, only white. Eh, I was close. My brother was then talking, but I couldn't hear anything at all; there was no sounds whatsoever, as if someone had hit the mute button on my dream. Everything then went black around me. I was not all the way out of the dream yet, however. I took off into the air, letting myself float like a leaf in the wind. The wind was blowing me around quite a bit, but I let it; I was going with the flow. I felt myself flying for a few seconds, and I then, unfortunately, woke up.

~

I was working at Kohl's again. There was a newer girl working with me. She was telling me something, and I was talking back to her, telling her I had worked there for almost 3 years now. I then thought to myself how that didn't seem quite right. I briefly became lucid while looking at a shelf, and thought to myself I could either keep the lucidity or go on with the dream, but I lost it for some reason.

~

I had another, very explicit lucid dream, and while I sometimes do a spoiler tag, this time, I really don't think I want to type it out. Sometimes, these dreams get too personal to share online. Sorry, guys.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #232: Chasing Shadows

I’m alone on a dirt road at night, and I know that this has to be a dream. The dirt road stretches forever in either direction, but that’s fine. I don’t intend to follow it anyway.

I clearly remember my intent to summon Dreamer, and I extend my right hand. “I know you’re already here,” I say. I don’t feel anything just now, but I don’t worry about it.

I look down at the road and see my shadow there below, alone. I look up and speak out loud to Dreamer about where I’m intending for us to go. I still don’t feel her hand but when I look down, there’s the vague shape of a woman’s shadow standing next to mine, her hand seemingly extended to where mine would be.

Good enough, then. I jump into the air and start flying upward toward the stars. After a few moments something feels wrong and I fall into the void.

I keep talking to Dreamer, reminding her and myself of where I’m going to take her in this dream, but I’m still missing that feel of a physical hand. I feel nervous that I’m spending too long in the void without a plan and I’ve forgotten what I’d intended to do in this situation.

I bring my hands back together and start rubbing them. It feels like I’m giving up on the summon, and I feel a little frustrated. The hand keeps me in the dream as I fly through the void. It works for a good while, but I’ve lost touch with my plans for the dream now.

I hold my hands up in front of my face, staring at them until I can make out their shape and a little bit of the detail. I’m lost, and without me driving the action forward, the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #231: Fedoras and Flatulence

I wake up feeling disappointed that I didn’t manage to have a lucid dream. Well, too late for that -- Wife and the kids are up and getting ready and my folks are here too. I feel grumpy and sorry for myself, but I get started with the day. Lots of mundane stuff happens and eventually we all wind up sitting at a cafeteria table across from a pedestal.

The pedestal fascinates me. It has the vague outline of a statue on it, which will fade from looking fully physical to almost completely invisible. It’s a statue of Artemis, and I know that nobody can see it but me because I’m the only lucid dreamer in this whole place. As I’m staring at this statue, a brown-haired woman in her early 20s sits down in the chair next to me, a little closer than appropriate. She touches me on the shoulder flirtatiously and leans in. “Hi! What are we looking at?”

I feel uneasy about how close she’s getting but also attracted and flattered. I feel like I don’t know how much information I should reveal about being a lucid dreamer, so my answer is guarded: “That’s supposed to be a statue there.”

“Well, what do you see?” she asks.

The truth: “It’s a statue of Artemis. I can see it because I’m a lucid dreamer.”

“That’s amazing!” she says. She makes a few more comments about lucid dreaming and then stands up. Her inner thigh brushes my left hand as she gets up and I again get that mix of attraction and discomfort. She smiles. “You should call me if you ever want to talk to me about it.”

I think that I’d have no way to call her because I don’t have her phone number. I’m about to ask her what it is but stop when I realize how bad that would sound. This all feels strange to me now. I look to my right and my family isn’t here with me. It’s just me. I take the nose pinch reality check and I blow right through, becoming semi-lucid but just not completely convinced. .This feels so real, am I sure? I hit a second nose pinch and now I’m fully lucid.

I get up from the table and move into an adjacent room, remembering my intent to summon Dreamer. My go-to method has been transforming an existing DC into her, so I look around at the few dream characters wandering this scene and confidently grab the nearest one. It’s a short, pudgy Asian male, overall a really abysmal candidate for this transform into Dreamer. I want to be confident though so I go right ahead with trying to transform this dude.

I press my hands along his scalp, spreading Dreamer’s purple hair color along his scalp. He’s smiling and kind of chuckling at this, seeming to find it funny. The purple is coming out but whatever paint is coming out of my hands feels really clump and uneven. The guy’s scalp is kind of sweaty, too, and the purple paint even starts running down his face. His hair isn’t even half purpled before I get frustrated after a long time trying. Okay, maybe he looks too different, try changing the face. I start mashing on his face with my hands, trying to change his look into Dreamer. He seems to be getting kind of pissed at me for this and the whole thing just becomes awkward.

Okay, move on. I leave and walk into another room with a strange, gently wavy floor. I try the behind-the-back summon, narrating that “I feel Dreamer’s hand over here,” but I feel this doubt like I’m not doing things properly. I call out “[Dreamer]!” (using her real name) and vaguely hear a response, and I decide that she must be up ahead in some nearby room. I decide to use my old trick of demanding that the dream show me the way, and now when I call for Dreamer, a doorway glows with bright yellow light.

I continue moving through another series of 3-4 doors this way, demanding to be shown the way and the dream complying. I wind up in a large, cavernous room filled with DCs. There is a group of nuns near one side of the room that are dressed in unusual red habits. A large number of adults wander the room (more women than men) and close to the center of the room there’s a shallow pit where a large group of children are playing together. I ask the dream to show me where Dreamer is, but the glow effect always seems to be slightly out of view, frustrating me. I demand out loud that “Everybody point to where [Dreamer] is in this room.”

Every character in the scene turns toward a young, blond girl that’s playing in the pit. She’s about 6, her hair much shorter and lighter than I would have imagined, but I feel like this is her. I walk up to the child, who looks up at me with a goofy, slightly crooked-toothed smile. I place my hands on the sides of her head and say, “This is you, you’re [Dreamer].” As I say this, she grows to full height and now she looks completely like herself, apart from the fact that she has the little girl’s short, blond hair.

“Thank you for finding me!” she says. Dreamer puts her arms around my neck and we briefly hug. Almost immediately, all of the DCs in the room move toward, all of them smiling at her, greeting her, and wanting to interact with her. Some of them congratulate her. I stand by a few feet to the side, interested and amused. As each of the DCs greet her in turn, at one point a man comes up with a tiny fedora and placed it onto her head as if he’s crowning her.

The happy throng of DCs congregate around Dreamer as they all walk toward one of the room’s exits. I feel sad to see her leave the dream scene so early but all of this feels very natural to me, so I don’t resist it.

Once I find myself alone, I walk through another exit into an office scene with lots of people working at desks. It looks like we’re high up in a skyscraper. I make some mischief in here with telekinesis, throwing a plastic sign, tossing a desk, picking up one poor guy who’s just trying to get his work done. The office workers start seeming uncomfortable with my presence, so I look for an exit.

Off to the side is a platform with a waiting helicopter, so I climb aboard. Another DC tries to get on with us, and there’s a brief argument about who should get to come aboard. The pilot says (referring to me) “He can do whatever he wants,” and we take off. We fly over the city for a good while and I spy a few buildings that look reminiscent from spots in Breaking Bad. Eventually the helicopter hovers over a forest clearing near a building and I jump out. The helicopter flies off and I’m alone again.

I remember that I have a lucid dare from Dreamer that requires me to perform a Super Advanced Fart (one which is “very long, loud, and powerful”). At first I feel like this will be impossible. My body isn’t giving me “the signal” that anything can be conjured up. I know that this is a dream, though, so I convince myself that a bubble of pressure is forming in my stomach. Once that’s there, a good push sends me into a full eruption. The emerging fart is ultra loud and super powerful, lifting me gently into the air. It feels like there’s a hand or a platform under my butt lifting me upward. I wobble around unsteadily in the air, leaning left and right and bobbing a bit. It feels like I have a jet pack on.

I’d hoped to have enough propulsion to reach lower earth orbit, but I never get more than 15-20 feet off the ground. As the “event” ends, I settle back down to the ground. Dare achieved!

I’ve still got some dream left, so I decide to find Dreamer again. I ask the dream to show me where she is, and a door glows on a nearby building. I head for the door but before I reach it, I have a false awakening at the foot of a bed. Wife is lying on the bed, completely unclothed, writing on a notepad. I feel extreme sexual attraction and I curl up next to her. The moment that I kiss her neck, though, her clothes reappear. Then she shows me that she’s making a list of personality quirks that makes her good at Jeopardy questions. I’m still trying to figure out how to turn things frisky when my dad walks by on the way to the kitchen. The mood is officially ruined, so I get up for the day before waking up for real.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #229: The Note

I’m sitting in a restaurant and something feels off to me. I stand up to find Wife standing here beside me and I realize that a lucid dream has started. “Do you want to come along?” I ask Wife.

“Sure, okay!” she responds rather happily. This is a nice change because she’s normally more involved in the dream plot and not as cooperative.

I walk outside of the restaurant with Wife, opening the glass door to walk through. Oops, I’d meant to do a phase for the competition! I try to quickly phase through it while it’s open. I phase my arm through the door and then start moving the rest of my body through, Wife giving me a very strange look. The door becomes flimsy in the middle of the attempt and starts folding in on itself. I gyrate my hips, trying to hurry through before it collapses, and I’m very conscious that it totally looks like I’m humping it.

The door becomes completely unmanageable and the scene comes apart as I fall into the void. I hand-rub for a bit to wait this out but sense that something is close to my face, something that I can chew on. I bite down on it and it tastes like a soft, very mild licorice. I usually hate licorice but there’s something about this that makes it a little more bearable, sort of like it’s been crossed with bubble gum somehow.

I keep chewing and chewing, walking forward through the void. I eat fast, consuming yards of the stuff as I walk forward. After a while, it just feels like it’s been too long in the void and that I need to do something about it. For some reason I raise both of my arms over my head before calling out, “Dreamer, pull me out!” I don’t feel any physical contact, but almost immediately find myself standing in my darkened master bedroom, no longer in the void.

There’s a piece of paper stuck on the opposite wall covered with large, handwritten letters. I interpret this as being a note that Dreamer has left for me. It looks like gibberish, so I move forward, trying to get a better look. It rearranges itself, but it’s still unreadable. Then the letters rearrange into:

“Sorry couldn’t read reply, check the”

I interpret this as meaning there’s something I’m meant to read, but I don’t know what. This is relevant for later… see the end of this entry!

I wander out into the hall, which is lit up like it’s morning. I remember my intent to phase and try to phase through my youngest child R’s door. Unfortunately the door just comes open instead of letting me phase and I see R beginning to stir around in bed. This sounds like a good way to get wrapped up in a dream plot, so I back away into the hall.

I fly down the stairs to the kitchen area to see that the breakfast table has been moved far to the side and that almost the entire area is covered with Lego pieces. The coolest part is that most of them have been assembled into these amazing, moving models of roads, freeways, machines, amusement park carousels, and all kinds of other things. It’s really vivid, so much so that it’s hard to shake the feeling that I’m viewing a scene from waking life. I think that in this scenario, Wife must have stayed up all night building this.

I leave through the back door, finding myself in a park walking along a red dirt path dotted with autumn leaves. I follow the path into a building with large plate glass windows all around its walls. I look back at the park through the window, marveling at how realistic it looks when I shift my perspective. I feel excited and happy to see this, saying, “I can’t believe my mind generated all of this.”

I remember again that I’d meant to phase, so I walk toward one of the plate glass windows, anticipating an easy phase. Unfortunately, before I get there, the dream ends.

Notes: Here’s something cool. Immediately upon waking up, I removed my sleep mask and looked over at the clock. Just as I was looking at it, my iPod’s screen came on with a notification. I popped it open and just at that moment I’d received a Skype message from Dreamer.

This was really exciting to me because of what the note had said earlier (“Sorry couldn’t read reply, check the”), and the timing was perfect. I guess that the end of the message would have been “check the iPod”. Pretty cool!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #228: The Fall from Orbit

I’m lying in bed when I sense a shift and suspect that a WILD has begun. Something feels not quite real about the situation. I rub my hands together. It’s close, but it feels like I’m dreaming this rather than experiencing it in the waking world. I feel Wife stir next to me and wonder if she can sense me moving around.

I try to speak but all that comes out is a strange, reluctant croak. There’s no doubt that it’s a dream now. The sense of being in bed becomes less and less clear and I feel like I’ve at least partially entered the void.

I wait for a while, relying on hand-rubbing to keep me in the dream but finally call out: “Dreamer, pull me out of here!” I feel the sensation of a hand grabbing my right arm and pulling me down toward where the “bed” would have been, and I get the sense that I’m rotating. When I’ve turned about 180 degrees I suddenly feel massive acceleration ahead of me and slightly downward, like something attached a rocket to me!

The acceleration halts and a new scene comes into view. I’m flying high above the Earth in lower earth orbit! The clouds look slightly pixelated but convincing enough that the effect is very dramatic.



I remember that all of my goals are on the surface of the planet, so I point myself downward and imagine myself shooting forward at top speed. I take off like a rocket, the ground rising dizzyingly fast to meet me. I’m shooting toward a bunch of buildings, headed directly for a house!

I’m prepare to plow into this house, but my fall stops short, my feet rotate back under me and I’m now standing gently on the ground next to a miniature house and a cluster of miniature buildings. What looked like a city seconds ago now looks like a bunch of little model buildings. The room is fully enclosed and dimly-lit but I can still see well enough to do what I want.

I want to summon Dreamer but there aren’t any DCs around to use. I remember my behind the back summoning tech, but I’m not feeling sure about how I executed it. It fizzles. I walk to another corner of the room and try it there. Still nothing.

I approach another part of the room where there’s a bar and a broad mirror above it. When I look into the mirror, I see myself standing there but in a completely different scene. My reflection is on some cobblestoned street, outdoors and it’s daytime. I strafe back and forth to test the reflection and he reacts as expected.

Now I spy the building’s glass front door and through it I see the cobblestoned scene I’d just viewed in the mirror. There’s a guy trying to get into the room, an Asian guy in his mid-twenties wearing glasses. Not the easiest DC to transform to Dreamer, maybe, but nothing I can’t handle!

I go up to the door to let him in and start messing with the lock. Then I realize what a waste of time this is. Why not just phase instead? I start the phase, my right arm passing straight through the glass but as I’m about to go the rest of the way, the dream ends.

This lucid is from the morning of August 1st.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #226: Bum Steer

I’m driving on a long, tree-lined road when I remember that I was hoping to have a lucid dream. I become lucid and just sit still for a moment, still driving as the dream continues just as it did before. I have this slightly paranoid feeling like the dream is going to “catch me”, but nothing happens.

I settle in to driving for a bit, thinking about what I want to do, feeling pleased with how smoothly the transition to lucidity went. I come to a rightward curve in the road and turn the wheel, but the car refuses to follow my instructions. I crank the steering wheel hard over to the right but nothing is working. The left front tire grinds along the curb for a while, the car shudders, and after a few seconds, I’m thrown into the void.

I rub my hands together and try to move my legs in a walking motion. It sort of works but I’m not feeling proper resistance in my feet and I have the sensation of my legs flailing around. It feels like this is going too long and I recall how Dreamer used flight when her dream went dark. I take to the air and fly around for a bit, the sensation partway between flying and falling. I finally remember that I have had good luck singing when I fly through the dark.

But before I even have to do any singing, I find myself flying high over a city. There are two tall, ruby-red buildings below me that are shaped like stretched out hexagon. As I look at them, an unseen voice gives me some kind of garbled warning about “balls” and the dream ends.

Notes: Given the theme, It’s interesting (well, to me at least) that during the day I was implementing the character-steering code for our video game project. Maybe I’m a little anxious about how well it’s going to work.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #223: Final Heart

I have a false awakening in my childhood bedroom and as I’m contemplating going back to sleep, I realize that no way am I really sleeping in my old room. I become lucid and attempt to get out of bed, which fails. I try rolling out OBE-style and after some clumsy attempts, I’m finally on my feet.

I walk out to the living room, looking at my hands. They’re darker and more grayish than they’d be in waking life, but other than that they look pretty much just as they should. The dream’s feeling a bit dark, so I shout, “Let there be light!” Embarrassingly, nothing much happens, so I just wander around in the den some more, trying not to focus too much on this.

I look to my left to find my doppelganger (a lookalike or double of me) standing at the door I emerged from. He’s dressed like I do to sleep and he’s sort of got bed head. He smirks sleepily at me and I walk toward him, but as soon as we get close to each other, I snap suddenly to his perspective (more or less) and find myself alone again. I drift toward an external wall and phase outside onto the street.

Outside it feels like early morning. In the neighbor’s yard I find a woman in her late 40s standing around as 4 small dogs scamper happily at her feet. She nods a casual greeting. I remember my goal of summoning Dreamer, so I say to the woman, “Ahh, you’re Dreamer.” She seems confused at first, but even as I watch I see her becoming friendlier, younger and more familiar. She’s starting to look like Dreamer, but the transformation’s not complete.

“I will be soon,” she says, smiling. I smile back and we walk through the yard together. I drape an arm over her shoulder as I explain (to her and to myself) the plans for this dream. I lose the dream, though, and wake up.

I sit tight for DEILD and wind up back in the kitchen of my childhood home. A couple of Brazilian men are sitting at the dining room table saying unkind things about my brother-in-law “Muppet”. One sarcastically calls him a “phenomenon.” I feel myself becoming invested in this plotline, but no, let it go, it’s a distraction.

I phase back outside and it’s nighttime now. I want to find Dreamer again and for some reason decide that a playground or dog park is the way to go. I fly up high into the air at high speed, piercing the cloud cover. When I look back down, I expect to see a park but nothing is showing up. I try to pretend that I already see it but when I pierce back through the clouds back to Earth, I’m half a block away from where I started.

There’s a badass three-wheeled police car here that looks a little like The Dark Knight Batmobile. It appears to be stuck because it hit another car and the officer seated inside is berating a teenage girl, blaming her for what happened. I just want the car, though, so I open the top of the car and boot the cop out of the driver’s seat with my left foot and drive off down the street.



I have a fun time driving for a couple of blocks until I come to an intersection where a cement truck is gushing this huge, oozing wave of wet cement everywhere. I avoid it by driving up onto someone’s yard and going around, but all the bumping seems to make the car sort of disappear within a half block or so.

I walk out onto DA street to see this amazing parade of armored elephants going by. There must be dozens of them, marching slowly and regally in single file. There’s something sad about their demeanor and from out of nowhere Wife is standing next to me, saying, “This last march they do is called their ‘Final Heart.’” She’s moved by what she’s seeing and I am too in spite of not really understanding it.



Further down the road I encounter a vertical sandstone wall with small outcroppings that could be used as handholds. When I look across the street to my left, I see my doppelganger already climbing up an identical wall! He looks over at me and grins. I decide that this is a great opportunity to practice my dream climbing, so I make my way up about twenty feet or so. I keep looking over at my double as I go, a little envious of how quickly and confidently he can make the climb. As I’m climbing, the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #221: The Singing Robot

I’m taking an unusually long time to fall asleep after WBTB and I sense a shift which makes me wonder whether the dream has begun. I will myself to roll out of bed and I find myself floating in the air about 3 feet above and to the left of where I normally sleep.

The sun shouldn’t be up yet but a trickle of daylight’s coming in through the shutters. I roll a couple of times, a little out of control. When I try to fly I wind up just heading straight downward, soon faceplanting in the floor. The scene goes dark and I hold on for DEILD. After a while I give up,I incorrectly thinking I’ve failed and have a false awakening, feeling disappointed that the dream was “so short”.

I log onto DV and see that Dreamer has left a series of comments on one of my DJ entries. Rather than text, these comments are a series of giant images that are larger than my screen, so I have to scroll around to see the entire picture. The first is one of Dreamer standing with one foot on a balcony railing, looking back at the “camera” and grinning. She’s holding her other foot over her head almost straight up in the air like some kind of crazy ballet move.

The next few pictures show different angles of a similar scene from a Japanese manga and I see that she’s just creating some favorite piece of a manga she likes. I think that this looks dangerous but I chuckle at her cleverness.

Soon the dream ends and I hold on for DEILD. I feel another shift and I once again roll out of bed into the air. This time I’m able to fly again but my dream body feels slight and insubstantial. It’s daytime, just as before, and I phase out through the shutters. The dream’s feeling really thin, and I try to rub my hands together but I can’t even manage that simple act. The dream soon falls into the void.

“I’m having a lucid dream,” I say, but my voice comes out very gargled and robotic. I don’t want to lose the dream, so I try singing. It works, but every word comes out in this strange, metallic robot voice:

This is a dreeeeeeam,
This is a dreeeeeeeeeeeam…
<pause> Dream dream dreeeeeeam…

The audio holds together for longer than I expect, but eventually I lose even this and wake up.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #220: Purple Haze

I’m walking through a hallway in an art school, getting ready to attend a class. I recall a previous dream where a lot of money had been stolen from my wallet and I dig for my wallet in a panic. I recall my intent to LD, get suspicious and nose pinch RC my way into lucidity.

I remember my intent to summon Dreamer for the challenge as I walk into one of the classrooms, but as I walk in a cluster of art students engage me in conversation. Before I know it, I’m blabbing about lucid dreaming until I’m only semi-lucid. Something prompts me to take out my iPod and check it. It acts just like waking life, but one of the words on-screen is “Kentucky”. Look away, look back, the letters are now a jumble, and I’m lucid again.

Wary of being distracted again, I duck back out into the hallway, which is now empty. I walk along for a while, thinking about how I’ll do my summon. I want to try rolling with what the dream gives me and using an existing DC. I step into an atrium where I see a handful of DCs walking around. I point at the closest one and say, “You’re Dreamer!” Immediately I notice that her hair is purple and she’s walking toward me. I lean in to make sure and it’s a perfect match!

“Yeah it’s me!” she says, as if nothing could be more obvious.

We hug and I start describing my plans for the dream. I tell her that I’m planning for us to do something together but that I’m having some trouble remembering Task of the Month. “That is Task of the Month!” she says, laughing. (Good call!)

“Oh right,” I say, “that’s Basic. [Note: Wrong, that’s Bonus!] But what’s advanced?”

She furrows her brow and then shrugs. We walk down the hall together and I tell her that I have an idea for something cool to do outside. We talk a bit more but I’m feeling like all this walking is compromising my lucidity, so I say, “Hey, let’s just fly, okay?” I turn my back toward her because for some reason I think she needs to ride around on my back. (How insulting!)

“Okay!” she says, and hops onto my back, “seatbelting” herself on by reaching her right arm over my right shoulder and her left hand under my left arm, then clasping her hands together. I hop up into the air and fortunately the flying feels effortless. We go soaring through the atrium into an area that looks like a shopping mall. There are a number of DCs milling about below and I’m surprised to see that a few of them also have purple hair!

We swoop low past a bench of DCs and a few of them run. I laugh at this, and Dreamer does too (though a little less maniacally than me.) We’re heading toward a low wall and I have a little trouble pulling up, my dream body kind of “oozing” awkwardly over the top. Made it, though! I see a set of doors off in the distance, so I set us down and head for them, determined to get outside. All the while I keep talking about how all of this is a lucid dream.

As I’m talking Dreamer starts taking over more and more of the conversation. I keep my left hand on her right shoulder as I walk in order to keep her “stuck” as part of the scene. But after a bit I notice that her accent, perfect at first, sounds all wrong and she’s changed the subject from dreaming to how I really should go back to art school. I nearly lose lucidity, but look over in time to see that Dreamer has been replaced by a young, dark-haired woman who looks Thai. “You never go to your art classes!” she says. “How can you expect to succeed if you don't go to your art classes?”

“You are not Dreamer!” I declare, pointing a dorky finger in the air and running for the exit.

“Wait!” says the woman, and I feel her grab onto my ankle. I ignore the sensation, though, and fly out through the door, phasing outside to a parking lot. There are a number of DCs milling about, mostly women, and all of them have purple hair!

I swoop toward the closest DC, a stout, middle-aged woman with glasses. “You’re Dreamer!” I say, pointing dramatically at her and kind of dropping into a goofy lunge. She says something noncommittal so I follow up with, “Don’t worry, you will be,” which she seems to accept with some surprise.

I tell her that my Task is to eat a huge dessert (somehow I’ve finally remembered) and she tells me that there is a “Chili’s” nearby. I point to a building and leadingly say, “You mean there, right?” She agrees and somehow I wind up inside of this restaurant, the purple-haired woman no longer around.

I’m walking forward in a huge line in order to enter the restaurant, which winds through some kind of indoor forest. I zoom in close to the tree’s detail and see ants crawling along the bark. I study the way that the lighting and shadows play off of the trees in real-time and I brag about all of this detail to the DCs, gushing that “This is all inside my head!” They nod politely and look a little uncomfortable.

We come to a long spiral staircase downward that leads to a cavern floor blanketed in mist. I don’t want to wait so I leap over the side, floating down to the floor and then moving into a dark tunnel. I remember how Dreamer had good luck producing a flame from her finger and how Xanous had focused on the pain of the experience to create fire in his hands. I hold up my thumb and expect this to happen for me as well but there’s nothing.

Now I expect pain and heat. There’s a slight tingling ache, but it’s little more than a nuisance. “The big fire!” I say. Nothing. I exit the tunnel into a large, darkened movie theater. I try to shout “The big fire!” but I get the sensation of my waking life voice croaking out the words and I’m startled awake.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #217: Jazz Hands

I’m standing at the foot of the stairs, droning on and on to Wife about lucid dreaming. “Remember!” I tell her. “You have to let me summon you.”

“Okay, fine, fine!” she says, seemingly in a hurry and darts away into the kitchen. I’m confused for a moment -- wasn’t I intending to summon Dreamer for the challenge? I realize that I’m dreaming and head for the front door, phasing out onto the front walk.

It’s a clear morning outside and I walk out to the sidewalk and then start running to the east, ready to attempt the summon. I reach my right hand out, slightly behind me and out of sight and say, “[Dreamer], I know you’re here!” I feel a hand and then two sharp tugs and when I look to my right, Dreamer is running/floating along beside me. She beams and starts floating while doing a silly “jazz hands” move with her right hand.

I decide to fly as well and wind up soaring into the air. Dreamer seems to be sticking at a lower altitude, though, and now dangles calmly from my right hand. I can see trees going by far below her feet.

I haul her up and she wraps her arms around my shoulders while still dangling underneath. She seems very relaxed about the whole thing but I start having trouble controlling my altitude and feel like I’m going to nosedive back into the earth. The scene collapses into the void but I still feel like we're flying. The fear of crashing is still there, though, and after a few more seconds I’m awake.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #216: Through the Roof

It’s some time after 4 AM and I’m wandering around downstairs, badly wanting to get some sleep to have a lucid dream. Somehow, Wife’s still awake watching something on her computer and I’m worrying that she really needs to get to sleep. “Well, I’m heading up,” I hint.

“Good night,” she says, still staring at the computer.

I head upstairs into the master bedroom. It’s dark, but there’s enough light that I can clearly see Wife curled up in bed. Wife downstairs and Wife upstairs? Dream! Since I’m in the bedroom, I get the sense that I’m supposed to start the lucid in the OBE style and “roll out of my body”. But I’m standing. How would I even do that?

Instead I decide to just float up through the ceiling, phasing out of the house and into the void. I thrash about a bit in the darkness and do a half-assed summon. Something that feels like a dry erase marker pops into my left hand, so I jam the end into my mouth and start chewing on it. With my right hand I make awkward swimming motions and imagine that I’m making forward progress.

After a bit of swimming, the void lifts and now I’m standing in my bathroom, all of the lights blazing. The bathroom looks mostly like it does in waking life apart from the fact that the mirrors are a little fogged up and have these odd creases in them. I can see my double in the mirror, making chewing motions with his mouth but he has no dry erase marker in his mouth. I grin and my double grins back, his mouth still shaped like he’s got the dry erase in it.

I dash around the room for a bit, keeping my eye on the mirror and my double does the same. I remember my intent to summon Dreamer. I reach behind me and try the summon, remembering my tip to Xanous to “try to just feel the person’s hand as if it’s already there”. To my complete embarrassment, this doesn’t work at all.

I try again and it’s not working. I become paranoid and wonder if it’s because I’m trying to summon in front of mirrors. I realize this is stupid but decide to try getting out of the room to see if that helps. As I’m walking to my left, I get this sense that I’m stumbling forward and the dream ends.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #213: Following the Herd

I’m walking across a field at night toward some distant farmhouse. I think that I should be home trying to lucid dream and realize that I already am.

I fly a few feet into the air and rub my hands together. I’m surprised to find that my left hand feels like it’s some kind of stiff, hooked claw. I look down at it and I can make out a smooth, curved shape, but it’s too dark to make out more detail. I worry that the scene is fading so I zoom toward the farmhouse.

I phase or jump-cut through the wall into the farmhouse interior, which looks more like the inside of a cafeteria. There’s a long line of DCs eagerly waiting for something that they’re handing out from behind a counter at the other end of the room. The line is roped off and a somewhat androgynous teenage girl with dark hair and glasses is directing people into the line.

I start to ask her what everyone is waiting in line for but I overhear someone talk about needing to pay for the item. I instinctively reach for my wallet and realize that not only is it missing, but so are pants of any kind. Shocked at my pantlessness, I lapse into non-lucidity.

I’m wearing a dark blue t-shirt that I try to pull down to cover myself. I hate being pantless but I really don’t want to get out of line. Then I worry about how I’m going to get money. Then my shirt disappears too. I helplessly contemplate how screwed I am until the dream ends.