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WBTB 3:30AM
Strong Mugwort Tea
4:00AM

MILD

I am working for my old boss. We wants us to stay late. F is telling me about it. I tell F, "Well eff him. I am not staying any later." I turn around and see my boss. Busted. He looks at me and says something about how he just wanted every one to go to the amusement park and pick up a form so that the company can let us have the day off at the park tomorrow. "Whatever, I don't care about that. I don't even want to go. It's 3:30 and I am going home."

I still feel a little pissed and find F. I ask him if he is going to the park. He says yes. I decide maybe I will go. I don't understand why I have to get a form but a free day off work sounds really good.

I arrive at some place in the country. There is a black leather fainting couch with wagon wheels on it. I lye down and it takes me on a dirt path on it own volition. I slow travel through a peaceful country setting and I feel contented to take it all in.

Soon I arrive at a booth. I ask the lady for a form and she promptly hands me one. I ask her how I leave and she points to another wheeled fainting couch. I lay down and it takes me back. It travels very quickly this time and I feel myself surge forward.

I phone rings. I look and the words are distorted but I see my wife's picture. I can't remember what we talk about. But I realize that during the conversation I was transported to where she is. I feel like I am in a lying potion but I seem to be standing. She is on a small a bed with our son and a gray cat. I recognize it as the stray we temporarily took in last year. I point and yell, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT CAT?!"

She calmly replies, "We found him and you said we can keep him."

Finally I realize this is a dream. I feel half awake now. I feel myself in my bed but still totally immersed in the dream. I ask my wife, "This is a dream isn't it?"

"Of course it is, babe."

I feel like I am waking up so I relax for DEILD. I get vibrations and I hastily get out of bed. I am standing in my room blind. I am trying to take it slow and be patient but I am frustrated. I remember something I read about surging forward in the void until a dream forms. I do just that.

I feel myself phase through the bedroom door and an exterior wall. I wasn't even considering that. I feel the G forces and the speed of my body as I go into warp speed. I can see a bright light from behind closed eye lids. I try to see a scene form but I feel myself destabilize.I get brief vibrations and then I wake up. Maybe that was the wrong time for this. I try to DEILD but the urge to enter this in my DJ was too great.

#1 - Just Trying To Be Spontaneous [DILD]

I don't actually remember the part of this dream before I got lucid, I just know that as soon as I did I started stabilizing by rubbing my hands together and I didn't stop for basically the entire dream. The first thing I remember is being, I believe, in front of my house with J and N and trying to stop trucks and buses in the road by pointing at them and yelling "Stop!" as I have in a previous lucid, but it wasn't working at first. Once I adjusted my technique a little (hard to describe how exactly) it worked though, and I was satisfied. I can't remember if we did anything more with it, but the next thing I recall is deciding that the three of us should walk into this random nearby house and see what's going on. The house and the people inside seemed totally real and random, I can't recall where my mind might have created that house from. All of the DCs, of which I think there were three, were older Asian people, one man and two women if I'm not mistaken (though the memory is a little bit hazy). I can't remember if there was more in between that and this next part, but I'm pretty sure that when we walked back out of the house the door lead to a totally different environment. We were in some kind of fancy hallway and in part of it there were these two gigantic doors that I was sure would lead to somewhere amazing. I told them to believe that the doors were going to take us somewhere cool, but when I opened them it was just like a tiny empty closet space. ._. We walked in and shut the doors and decided the room was still pointless, so then we headed back out. Suddenly there was a view to the outside and as I stared into the sun I vaguely recall hearing Penny from The Big Bang Theory saying something about having a Jewish boyfriend in the sky, or something confusing like that.... When we turned around we were suddenly on the rooftop parking lot somewhere in the middle of the downtown area and there was someone standing near a black sports car with all of its doors open like they were waiting for people to get in. Around this time N became O and I turned to him and J and said "Come on guys, we're going for a drive." Or something like that lol. We get in with me in the driver's seat and I hit the gas. We end up driving forward over the side of the building and they're both freaking out, but I'm just trying to pull the steering wheel back until finally the car tilts up and I have control of it like a plane. It was a little rough, I had to focus a lot on stabilizing and controlling the car at the same time but I managed to pull it off. The guys were now thrilled but still shocked and I found it quite amusing. At some point I had the feeling that we were being chased by cops or something for presenting a hazard to the city, and somehow they knocked us out of the sky. We were at the edge of the city and facing a long stretch of road, and the car turned sideways and started bouncing off of it repeatedly, twirling for long distances with each time. During one of the bounces I stood up (technically sideways) out of one of the car windows and flipped off the city and whoever was chasing us with a big grin on my face. The last thing I remember about the dream was that O had turned back into N by this point, but then it ended.

Not bad if I do say so myself.

#2 - Definitely A New Look For Him.... [MILD]

I was back at my middle school as my current age and all I wanted was a day off (of what I don't know) and to talk to my... well, to keep it simple, let's just say my theater teacher. I had sneaked back into the school and was off to the side of the stage by the bathrooms while there was a play going on waiting to talk to her, when I was spotted by what I took to be Sylar from Heroes pretending to be reformed as a good guy and wearing a dress, and scaled up to be proportionally taller and bigger than normal. He was looking at me weirdly and I just pointed to my teacher and he told her that I was acting strangely but needed to talk. I said "Yeah, like you're any less suspicious." and glared at him while following her into the music hall, but as I walked past him through the door he gave me a sneaky signal like "see me later" or something. >.> I was becoming lucid and turned around to watch him peer around a corner just to have him turn into some creepy smiling old fat guy. I felt really weirded out and just turned around to talk to see my teacher, but she was gone. I went around the corner looking for her but the music hall had become the main hallway in my house I just saw someone who I forget now in my parents' bedroom. I was feeling freaked out and every direction I looked in felt surreal and distant or dissociated and like there were strange people there. And that's about the last thing that happened before I woke up.

This is from November 21st, I just didn't get around to typing it all up before.

Early in the night I originally fell asleep on the couch in the living room in front of my laptop, then I woke up a couple to a few hours later and shut down everything in the house and moved to bed. So that technically makes these with a WBTB.

#1 - Creeper Nightmare [Non-Lucid]

Throughout this dream, for some reason all of the windows in my house had open blinds and were larger than normal, making it very easy to see into the house from the outside at any point. It was really creeping me out because in the house next to mine which was visible through the windows there were these four guys that kept peering around corners or over fences to just stare at me in a really freaky way, and then they would start laughing when I got anxious. Even when I tried to go out front or out back I would see them watching me from somewhere. At one point I was even crawling around on the floor in the house and reaching strategically over and around objects to avoid being seen by them, knowing that they were just out of eyesight staring into the window. Eventually I just got pissed, and I went out front, walked over to their fence, and jumped up on it in one swift movement. This is not uncommon for me; my dream self seems to think that walking on fences is fairly normal, though still something to be considered significant. I ran along the top until the second floor balcony of the next door house (which doesn't actually exist, it's a one-story house) and leapt over to it. I went in through the door and walked up to one of the guys who said "Oh shit!" and looked shocked. I was ready to smack a ho, but then my memory of the dream gets really blurry and I just remember there being something about my old friend T, I saw him for a second... but then, I woke up. Ah, well.

#2 - Modeling Assignment [Non-Lucid]

I was at some big school function where they paired us up with different students and had us take tests and do modeling jobs and stuff. There was some girl there that I was just trying to be nice to for some reason, and I remember lending her a pencil, but then she still got totally pissed at me for something. However, AB, this girl I used to know since elementary school but barely ever talked to since then, got up and started defending my honor with some long speech. Oh, also, I think for most of this dream, or at least this part onward, I was JY, this guy I also knew since elementary school. No idea why, I haven't thought about him in ages.... Anyway, like I said, we were paired off and we were supposed to be doing a modeling gig. For ours they were expecting us to submit some comic we'd made, but my partner was the one who had it on him and he didn't show up. I tried doing the gig myself and they told me my image was nice but it needed more, it had to be both of us or neither. I decided to go walking around the mall/school looking for my partner and somehow ended up back at my house. (My real house, not JY's house.) I was in my parents' bedroom and I decided to just jump back on the bed and give the guy a phone call. I told him the situation and he said that he had to ditch to go to a dentist appointment. I just said that that was fine because the school was just pushing us into it anyway so I didn't really care that much.

#3 - Nothing Wrong With A Little Bondage [Non-Lucid]

I was at some kind of station waiting for transportation with my parents, and there were these two random girls standing not far from us. I turned to my parents and asked them if the train that just left was the one that we were supposed to be taking, and the girls startled giggling and said that it was actually a bus. I just responded that we call it a train where I come from. It was clearly based on a train from around here, so I wasn't wrong lol. Eventually a couple more arrive and we got on a different one from them and I get a third-person view (from outside and behind the train, though it may have become a bus considering what we did next) of the train swerving through traffic and over all these crazy highways that bend at impossible angles. It basically looked like a huge video game obstacle course set up all around some big city full of skyscrapers. The dream then transitions to when I'm already off the train and I'm at a mall restaurant of some kind meeting up with M, some random DC, O, ET (heh, not the extra terrestrial), S (5 hits, for self-reference), and maybe C and a few others. We were going to do something though I can't remember exactly what now, and this random guy walked up to me and kissed my hand. I just patted him on the back and said "Sorry, I'm taken." and moved on, and I saw a friend comforting him as he walked away. Then, ET just up and decides to grab me by the arms from behind, pick me up, and hold me locked in some bondage position to parade me around the mall for everyone to see. At this point many of the people in the crowd were suddenly in fetishy outfits, and everyone was just staring at me amused as we went by. And yes, it was awesome. >.> I could hear the whole gang talking about movies or something behind me, but I never got back into the conversation before the dream ended. I had a brief false awakening where I typed up most of the previous dream on my phone, almost letting it fade from memory. Luckily, I still remembered it well upon waking for real.

#4 - And Now The Creepers Can Fly ;-; [MILD]

In this dream I felt that I was visiting home for the holidays, though I'm not entirely sure where exactly I would've been visiting from. I was wandering around outside on the side of my house by the next door neighbors' fence and I saw some random girl followed by SC, this girl I knew in middle school, breaking into their yard through the fence. The girl was saying that it's just something she likes to do to mess with people so they have to take the time to clean their yards up. Now this next part I really have no memory of at all, though I really wish I did. Instead, I'll just have to quote it. "Then some old guy comes running by and uses me as an external pacemaker for a second." I go back inside my house through the garage and see the girls sitting out back and think that something must be up because they should still have been in the neighbors' yard. I approach our back door and think to myself "Alright, if I can fly right through it then this is a dream." I leapt off the ground and went right through the door and wall and flew into the sky. I was excited, but immediately after the happiness set in and I turned around slightly and saw some creepy guy flying right behind me. I had an adrenaline rush and the scene transitioned into my bedroom, and I was convinced that I'd ruined my shot. I almost lost this dream to a false awakening as well, but thankfully I woke up shortly afterward.

Don't even remember how I got lucid, but it's night time outside, and I'm flying looking for Kaomea. The area seems endless, so i decided to land and teleport. I started sinking into the ground, and these dogs came up and tried to bite me.

Either I'm playing a game, or just in some super weird world. Everyone is dying...people are getting killed left and right, and it's actually supposed to happen. I remember growing in size to fight some humanoid type monster, but lucidity didn't last long at all. I think the objective was to find all things...like rings or something, and the world would get restored. It happened before, but we never knew it.

Now I'm playing some game...it's pretty crazy. It's an over head beat-em-up, and it has like at least 100 characters to choose from. I'm playing it with my niece, brother, nephew, and some other people were watching. There was a weird sex scene in it....so I told the kids they'd have to get out. Then my sister tells me I have to go fill up the van for her (she doesn't own one) and pick someone up. On top of that, the van takes 110 octane. I'm really mad at her, and I'm trying to reason with her.

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.

I had this short lucid dream during a very brief mid-morning nap. Lucid napping is a first for me. I didn't perform at my best in-dream and I allow the dream to end much too soon. Also, I get beat up by a little kid. But hey, lucid is lucid! Always learning.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #22: Unwelcome Houseguests

I'm holding hands with my two toddler-age sons, preparing to go outside for a walk. Before we reach the front door of th house, twin boys with curly blonde hair open the door and scurry inside. They look to be about eight years old and are complete strangers to me. This feels strange, and soon I'm lucid.

I decide that I don't want these weird kids running around in my house so I start ushering them out the door. They seem to cheerfully accept getting kicked out so my thoughts turn to lucid goals. I remember that I wanted to do the Task of the Month and replace my head with a pumpkin. But what was the other one? Ah yes, get a vampire, werewolf, or zombie to bite me. Now I remember.

Just as I'm thinking this (and probably because I'm thinking this), the twin on my left suddenly lunges at me and bites me hard on the left pec, right by my armpit. He snarls like a dog, whipping his head back and forth. I'm taken completely by surprise, both by the suddenness of the attack and by how much it actually hurts. I try to shout some kind of command at him but all that comes out is this pathetic yowl.

I blank out for a fraction of a second and my perspective switches to the top of the stairs, looking down at the scene of the attack. I have no dream body and everyone (me, my kids, the twins) is now gone from the scene. My view is turned on its side, as if I were lying down. I try to move, try to RC, but with no body there's not much that I can do.

I imagine that I'm lying here because I passed out and I'm just waking up. This seems to work! I have hands and a body again and I slowly get to me feet. Just then, I hear the sound of my alarm clock and voluntarily wake up. But when I wake up, it's only been 15 minutes since I laid down! The alarm wasn't anywhere close to going off and I fooled myself into waking up for no reason.

This was easily my wildest, trippiest lucid dream of all time. A big first from this one was meeting my doppelganger. Confusion, chaos and questions of identity reigned in this LD and what little control I had amounted to very little in the end. Very different from my usual LD fare but fun nonetheless.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #21: Technicolor Thomas Jefferson

It's nighttime and I'm standing in the shadow of a deserted overpass, talking on a cellphone. I'm some sort of drug dealer or smuggler, talking to one of my scumbag smuggling associates about when and where our next deal will go down. The conversation ends, and I start walking back across a parking lot to my car, a silver Mercedes Benz.

As I'm walking, I get that familiar feeling of recognition and think, "This isn't me. I'm not a criminal. Am I just dreaming this?" I become lucid and look for the nearest piece of usable scenery. Before I can get anywhere, though, darkness begins pressing down on me and I feel the dream fading. I look at my hands but they're vague and insubstantial, with wispy ribbons of skin hanging off of them.

My vision goes completely black but I keep repeating, "I'm still dreaming" and refuse to wake up. Jumbles of random letters fall slowly from the top to the bottom of my field of vision. I reach for the letters, trying to feel them, turn them into some kind of new dream scene. Even though I can't see my hands, I finally manage to grab a letter and squeeze it. It feels like a squishy piece of felt. The letter suddenly squirts out of my hands and floats away. I flail for a new letter.

Now I'm back in bed and my hands are thrashing in front of me. Out loud, I'm saying "I'm still dreaming", although I no longer believe it. Wife rolls over and says, "What are you doing?" I look over at the alarm clock and see that the numbers are flashing at random. Still dreaming, indeed. "It's okay," I tell her. "Go back to sleep." I get out of bed and walk toward the bathroom, planning to go for the "pumpkinhead" Task of the Month using the bathroom mirror.

Before I make it to the bathroom, the image of a huge, hissing black cat is stamped across my vision. Behind this cat I still see my first-person perspective but much of it is now obscured. Then another stamped image over that, this time of a woodworking bench covered with tools. Then an old woman pushing a cart. Then another, and another, and another each new image papering over the last.

Finally, things settle onto an image of Thomas Jefferson reading in a comfortable-looking chair. He's super-saturated with color, just like the boldest Technicolor films. Think Wizard of Oz but with the saturation even more intense. I remind myself, "I'm dreaming" and a banner reading "I'M DREAMING!!!" appears over Thomas Jefferson's head. He glances up from his book, sees the banner, then stares straight at me in surprise.

Suddenly, I'm in the passenger seat of a car, heading west on a road near my office. It feels strange, so I try to remember how I got there. I remember Technicolor Thomas Jefferson and I'm immediately lucid again. I look over at the driver of the car and I realize that the driver is me. Only it's not really me but a Dream Character version of myself. I can hear my double's thoughts but I can't influence him and I see that I'm a disembodied observer with no dream body of my own.

I hear my double think, "I've got to go back to where it started. Back to where I became lucid. I have to make it happen again." My double pulls into a parking garage and we're soon wandering the halls of an office building. My double visits each office that he finds, and in every one we see friends and old coworkers. Finally, my doppelganger steps into an office shared by two female twins (IWL friends of mine) and a woman who calls herself Susan.

The twins greet my double and welcome him to their office but Susan isn't buying it. She shakes her head and says, "That isn't your friend. I don't know what that is, but your friend is there." Susan points, not at my double but at me, the spot from which I am observing with no dream body. The twins turn to look, not comprehending and I wake up.

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.

Side Notes - This lucid is actually from September 27th, I just never took the time to type it up until now.

My Sandbox [MILD]

The main thing I remember about the first part of this dream was that I was at home and we were throwing a party with lots of my family members and old teachers attending. After everyone had pretty much left I was just hanging out in my room and I saw my 11th grade physics teacher coming up to the door through the window so I went to go meet him. I think he also morphed into some random guy at one point.... I went and opened the front door and he wasn't there, and upon seeing that I immediately became lucid. I randomly decided to climb the tree in our front yard, so I sprinted towards it and just ran up it. I'm pretty sure the geometry of this experience was beyond alien, my memory is quite confusing, but eventually I was just standing up on a high point of the tree. I looked up into the sky and saw a car slowly floating through the air way off in the distance and was confused for a second, but I decided I probably shouldn't let myself get distracted with that or the dream will fade. (I've gotten this feeling while staring into the sky while lucid before.) I took one last look at the car and then back down to the ground. Extending out in front of me was a long and incredibly thick tree branch that seemed to be made to resemble the shape of a slide. There was even a little cupped part at the bottom. I slid down and the branch moved to help get me gently on to the ground. I turned around and noticed that the branch was actually in the shape of an arm, and the cupped part was the tree holding its hand like that to assist me. I reached out and shook this massive hand and smiled, the tree seemed nice. I had landed in the road and there was a car coming right for where I was standing, so I crouched down and spread my arms out to try and hold it off. When it collided with me I was pushed back slightly, but mostly I was able to push the force of the impact to the side and the car ended up smashing through the front yard of the house across the street from mine. I turned around and saw their fence running along the side of the street, so I jumped up to it and started running along the top. I was headed toward the nearby alleyway but as I looked at the houses over there my vision started to get really white and blurry and I was afraid that the dream might be ending. I turned around and saw a truck with a pretty empty back turning the corner on to a nearby street (the one that extends directly out from our house, we live at a three-way intersection). I held out my hand and yelled "Stop!" and the driver immediately slammed on the breaks. Then I clenched my fingers almost into a fist as a way of doing a sort of telekinetic or magnetic pull and it totally worked. I was pulled by an invisible force on to the back of the truck and I reached over to pat its side and said "Alright, let's go." We started moving, and I vaguely remember leaning over and starting to say something to the driver and/or passenger, but then I woke up.

Fun night.

This was a Task of the Month attempt and my first lucid in several days. This was a fun dream and it was exciting to be back in the saddle.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #19: The (Headless) Man in the Mirror

I'm in an office kitchen and I happen to run into L, an old friend from high school that I barely ever see. I ask how married life has been and whether anything exciting is going on with her. She reveals that she's expecting and is "3 weeks along". I remark that I couldn't tell (duh) but she doesn't respond.

Assuming she didn't hear me, I repeat what I just said, only to realize that she has vanished. A young woman taps me on the shoulder and says, "Are you okay? You look like you're talking to someone but there's nobody there." Immediately lucid, I nod to her. "Thanks. Everything's fine. I'm dreaming." She seems to accept this, walking away. My mind is immediately on the Task of the Month and I walk through the nearest doorway.

I wind up in a large classroom that looks like it might be for first- or second-graders. Daylight streams in from a large window on the far side of the room. I'm the only person in the room and there's a pumpkin in the middle of every short little table. Yes, conditions are perfect for removing my own head.

I walk around the room, thinking of mirrors, expecting to see one around every corner. Finally one of those odd, distorting fish-eye mirrors appears but I figure it'll be fine. I check my reflection and I'm wearing extremely thick black glasses and a purple tank top. My hair looks all 90s and hair-sprayed. I decide not to get too attached to this new look as I shall be ridding myself of this head shortly.

I begin to think about how all my life I have had the head of a Lego man, attached to my neck by nothing but a short knob. I place both hands under my jaw. Even though I can feel my hands on my face, my reflection's hands are a few inches away. I go ahead anyway, smoothly pushing up, and my head pops right off, just like a Lego piece. There's no blood and no pain. All of this feels perfectly natural.

I need to find a pumpkin now so I unceremoniously chuck my head onto the floor. It makes a sound like a softball as it lands. I grab a nearby pumpkin and see that it's already carved like a jack-o-lantern. I wonder whether this is a violation of the rules that I'm supposed to carve it. I decide that once I put it on I'll add features. (Maybe a mustache?) I return to the mirror to complete the procedure but find that my original head has grown back. I feel a flash of surprise and the mirror disappears.

I start looking around the class for more mirrors. One pops up but vanishes as soon as I try to look into it. I grumble about this and my voice suddenly sounds like the growl of an old man. I find a third mirror. When I look into it, Walter White from "Breaking Bad" is staring back at me. He (is this me or someone else??) is wearing the trademark Heisenberg pork pie hat and dark glasses. The dream fades and I'm awake.

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 was my first encounter with a hostile, physically violent DC. Great learning experience, I think. I also wound up giving an LD mini-seminar in dream, which was interesting to say the least!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #18: DC Wants a Piece of Me

I hurry into a grocery store to pick up some items, passing my friend R on the way in. (The only IWL friend I have that regularly LDs.) I say hey and we catch up about the time he's been spending in Seoul, South Korea. I'm in a hurry so I tell him I have to run.

As he's leaving, I call back to him and ask, "R, what city are we in right now?" He thinks for a moment and then says that he doesn't know. How can we both not know? Something's off. "Buddy, aren't you supposed to be in Seoul? I've never been to Seoul." We agree that it's strange neither of us know where we are and I realize that I'm dreaming. "I figured out what's going on, R. I'm dreaming. Well, one of us is, I guess. Probably me." He congratulates me and agrees that it's "probably" me having the LD and not him. I clap him on the shoulder and head into the store.

I walk through a set of automatic doors and casually explore the store, taking my time marveling at the items on the shelves, the level of detail, and the sheer number of dream characters buying food for the week. I spend several minutes just enjoying the people and texture in the place. One DC, a bulky man in a football jersey and baseball cap, gives me a slightly unfriendly look, but I ignore him.

A more serious confrontation is next. I'm approaching the frozen foods section when a fat, enormously tall man locks eyes with me. His many chins quake with rage and his fists are balled up for a fight. The huge man strides toward me, flaring out his arms like an obese grizzly bear. I hear him grinding his teeth. The sound is awful, like ice cubes being crushed against one another.

My own temper starts to smolder but I catch myself and say, "Wait. You're not upset with me. You're angry about something else. What can I do to help you?" He stops and drops his arms to his side, mouth hanging open in surprise. Sheepishly, he says, "Drumstick." I point to one of the cases in the freezer aisle and it begins to give off a warm glow. "The ice cream's in there," I tell him. "I made this place. That means it's my fault it didn't have what you needed. I'm sorry for your trouble." He smiles broadly and waves, turning toward the ice cream.

I walk further down the freezer aisle, studying the ice cream and shelves full of frozen dinners. (My subconscious seems to mostly produce lasagna and meatloaf.) At the end of the aisle, I come to a door that leads into a hotel banquet hall with a view high above the city. (What city? Still don't know.)

I'm barging in on some sort of convention and the well-dressed DCs act shocked to see me. They protest at first but I inform them that all of this is my lucid dream, so they'll just have to be patient until I'm through. They become very interested, peppering me with questions. A small crowd of well-dressed young professionals gathers around me, asking me why I keep rubbing my hands together and prodding at my arms. I explain a bunch of LD concepts to them, starting with stabilization, going through how I enter an LD, etc. None of it feels like a waste of time. If these DCs represent some part of myself, what could be better than reviewing the basics?

I tell them that I have to find the Cretaceous sea. I hold my hands out and will the Cretaceous sea to illuminate. A chunk of the horizon starts giving off a warm glow (just like the ice cream!) I try to push through the window, which fails, and then try to punch it. It acts like plexiglas, wobbling and vibrating but refusing to break. I finally grab a chair and knock out a smaller panel.

I squeeze myself through to the outside of the building. The wind is fierce, tugging at my clothes, and the ground looks far, far away. I cling to the building, suddenly more afraid than I was prepared to be. I start to calm myself but it's too late -- I'm awake.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #17: Doorway Troubles

We're throwing some kind of huge party at our house. Our den has expanded to an impossible size and is filled with rows of picnic tables, with friends and family all around. I feel the mingled excitement and vague anxiety that I always feel hosting any sort of event. It's fun visiting with the guests, several of whom I haven't seen in quite some time.

"S", a friend of mine, grabs me in order to inform me than an "associate" of his has inexpensive cruise tickets that he would like to sell me. S's associate is a rough-looking character with a plug earring installed in each of his wobbling earlobes. He carelessly dumps his wallet out on the table, telling me that the tickets are "in there somewhere". I find his driver's license, which is covered with uncomfortably personal information, such as the fact that he is an "Atheist" who has a "Vasectomy".

I find a strange little zip-lock bag filled with strips of paper that have different people's signatures on them. It feels creepy to me and I wonder why he would have such a thing. I joke nervously, "A little weird, but at least it's not a bag full of women's hair or something."

When I look up to gauge his reaction, the scene has shifted. I'm now surrounded by a handful of well-dressed police detectives. They chuckle at my comment and I realize that I'm also a detective and we're working together to solve a crime. Fortunately, I still have strong recall of the previous dream scene, note the strangeness of the transition and I become totally lucid. I stop in the middle of a sentence I can no longer remember and say, "And now I am lucid." I nod politely at my new colleagues and get up to leave.

The detectives step aside for me and I see that I'm on the ground floor of a glass office building. Through the glass I see a street scene, cars and pedestrians passing by outside of the building. I walk past a busy cubicle farm, taking in my surroundings and ambling slowly toward the exit.

Clarity is high and I feel super-aware, like the master of my domain. I feel so confident that I have no urge to stabilize. Out loud I say, "This is my lucid dream. It will go at my pace and nobody will control it but me." I feel calm and unstoppable as I walk toward the exit. A woman enters from the street and I nod a greeting. She smiles back and I note that although she is a stranger to me, she looks every bit as real as a person I might encounter during a day at the office.

After the woman passes, I step calmly through the exit. There's a flash of light as direct sunlight hits my eyes and suddenly I'm awake. The calmness is still there at first but it evaporates quickly. My pulse is high (although not as high as my prior LD waking) and I wonder whether that just started. It's inconceivable to me that I felt as calm as I did if my sleeping body had such a high heart rate.

The lucid portion probably went just over a minute. I'd have of course preferred a longer lucid, but every lucid dream (especially a high-clarity one like this) feels like a real victory!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #16: Alone in the Dark

A friend is showing me around some mansion, delivering this nonstop harangue about the lack of baby proofing. I'm surprised by how angry she is until we reach a second floor balcony that overlooks a huge courtyard with a fountain. Next to the railing is a strange device that invites a baby to crawl onto it and then extends over the edge of the railing to "give the baby a better view" by dangling them hazardously over the side.

Now that I've seen this dangerous contraption, I get why she's so mad. Now I'm fuming too. But when I'm done whining and stop to study my surroundings again, I notice that I'm no longer in a mansion. I'm now alone on the second floor of a shopping mall. I don't understand how I got there. Everything looks very real, though, so I decide I'm probably not dreaming. I reality check "just in case" and I'm astonished when it fails. I hit a second nose pinch. This also fails and I think, "No way. I just did it wrong." Third try fails and now I'm finally lucid.

I'm shocked that this is a dream and my vision immediately goes black. I start rubbing my hands together, determined not to let this go. I test my dream body in a variety of ways to keep myself tethered to the dream: I rub my hands over my elbows, flick my teeth with my fingernail, lick my arm, flex and prod at my muscles, slap myself in the face. Everything works and I feel solidly locked in -- I just can't see anything. This goes on for quite some time and I'm having trouble staying calm.

Unsure what to do, I extend my right hand and plead for help. "I can't see. Please, somebody help me." Seconds later, someone grabs my hand, gives it a hard yank, and I stumble forward, my vision fully restored.

Of all people, my rescuer is Julia Roberts (an actress that I do not particularly like and haven't thought of in years.) I suddenly feel like a jerk for not really liking her work.

We're on a dilapidated pier by the seaside. I demand "Super high-def!" from the dream scene and everything sharpens nicely. I hear the creak of beams and the slap of seawater against the piers, as well as the distant cry of gulls. I know that I'm right on the water and think of getting to the Cretaceous seas!

Julia Roberts shouts at me that "You're almost out of time!" and runs off down the pier. I run after her, searching for some way to get to the open water. Dream characters peer at me from stalls on the sides of the pier, murmuring incomprehensibly to one another as I pass. I keep running, wondering whether I need to try something drastic to change things in my favor. Soon the dream fades to black, this time for good.

My heart rate's noticeably elevated and I can feel blood pumping through my carotid arteries. I'm too amped to go back to sleep. I wonder: why'd I lose this one? Simple excitement? Succumbing to a false sense of urgency? Or is this all just Julia Roberts' fault? Advice welcome!

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.