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Morning of June 13, 2020. Saturday.

Dream #: 19,535-07. Reading time (optimized): 2 min.



My dream self maintains the instinctual awareness I am dreaming (after dropping back from post-liminal mode to pre-liminal) by becoming more aware while sitting in a bed near the ocean (potential reinduction). There is the typical indoor-outdoor ambiguity, with my bed in this instance being near a harbor in Antissa, Lesbos, though the setting does not have a more discernible definition.

My waking-life identity is absent. I am listening to an operatic aria (fictitious, I assume) sung by Luciano Pavarotti about Antissa. (I do not listen to opera in waking life.) I am unsure of the source of the music, but it is probably from a cassette (as my dream self has no recall of what a CD is).

The sleep-wake manager eventually appears as an unknown male, but he is in passive mode (non-RAS; non-cerebral.) I sit down and watch him create a painting. It features a black oval as a scene of outer space. (This feature represents a higher level of sleep atonia, which may be why somatosensory kicks in as the trigger in the last scene rather than a vestibular event.) There are sparse red and blue ovular arcs around the “egg.” I absentmindedly add a blue ovular arc to the image’s right side with a felt-tip pen. Almost immediately, I feel as if I may have been intrusive in doing this. I start praising his art, focusing the most on the outer space rendering within the oval. He does not seem angry or annoyed.

A reporter approaches and wants to interview the unknown artist. There is still indoor-outdoor ambiguity, though the setting has more outside dynamics at this point. The two men stand and face each other, about ten feet away from me. The reporter says he is interviewing “the aggressor.” I am puzzled by this and state that he is not an “aggressor,” though I do not know his history. I hope I did not embarrass him by saying this.

Soon, a sun spider (camel spider), as long as the reporter’s head, crawls around from behind his head and covers his right ear. I am amused, as neither man seems to know it is there. Another sun spider of about the same size as the first crawls from behind the reporter’s head but goes around to the other man’s right ear. The man ignores it despite being aware of it. There is no sense of a threat, as my dream self considers them harmless. I wake at this point with a sense of great amusement.

---

A vestibular-cerebral handshake did not occur as the waking process in this instance (as the result of greater sleep atonia but with a directive toward hand myoclonus), so it was somatosensory in this case. In other words, I sleep on my left side, with my right ear more exposed to my waking-life environment. The somatosensory focus was liminally drawn to that factor, especially as a spider often represents the human hand and its somatosensory arousal (though a sun spider is not a true spider).

---

I'm giving a woman a ride somewhere in a carriage, and when she's gotten settled I knock on the wall twice and we start moving. I go to lower the curtains on the windows, and as I do I catch sight of her fiance out on the street, obviously looking for her. She's already made it clear she doesn't want to be found at this moment. As I'm looking at him I'm struck again by how incredibly dull he seems. I say to her, "On God's green earth, what do you see in him?" I gave up my chance with her so I have no right to judge the man she chose, but still - him?

She says, "On God's green earth, I won't let you steal my plan. I can't." Either she has drastically changed the subject or else I've drastically misunderstood their relationship - either way, I have no idea what she's talking about.

Just then, her fiance spots us - I should have lowered that curtain - and he shouts her name, Ephigenia. He is being ridiculously overdramatic, people will think I'm kidnapping her.

(Woke up. Back to sleep.)

Disembodied, I'm watching my son be interrogated by a pair of policemen. We don't have any legal ties under my present identity, at his insistence - he's old enough now that we look the same age, so adopting him again wouldn't have been practical, but I'd wanted to arrange something, and he'd refused. I'm particularly annoyed about that now, when a legal connection would come in handy.

They've accused him and his sister - his biological sister, I didn't raise her, hadn't known she was alive until just now - of murder, and he's been repeatedly telling them he's innocent, but they've just produced an audio recording of what is clearly his voice stating that "we" - he and his sister - have been waiting for this since he was nine years old. As I hear the recording, I see a mental image of him at the moment he spoke those words, with a man tied up in front of them. Up until this moment I'd believed he was innocent. Back in the interrogation room, he's insisting that the voice on the recorder isn't his, but he's clearly fooling no one. They've been letting him tell his story, knowing he was lying the entire time.

I've heard enough. I remove my awareness from the interrogation room. Back in my body, I'm standing in my son's apartment - a tiny studio with a mattress on the floor, cluttered with random piles of clothes and other things. He wasn't doing well. I'm extremely annoyed about this situation - he'd betrayed me, he'd made it clear he was going to cause trouble for me, but for him to simply be removed from the situation like this by unrelated people, that doesn't sit right with me.

(Woke up. Back to sleep.)

I'm running - as fast as I can manage, which isn't very - along a snow-covered mountain path, trying to hold my throat closed as much as possible. I'm wearing black leather gloves, the blood blends in very well. This isn't the first time I've had my throat slit, so at least this time I know my voice will come back eventually - just the memory of how frightening it had been the first time I had my throat slit still makes me uncomfortable. It's still incredibly inconvenient until it heals. One of my least favorite ways to 'die.' I'm thinking about the man who 'killed' me - a soldier on the same side I am. I don't know why he did this - he enjoys violence in general, so I'm hoping it was just something personal and not something larger I'd have to worry about.

Thinking about that man's possible motivations prompts a scene change. I'm peeling an orange as a visitor goes upstairs to meet with that man who'll slit my throat. I can hear the sound of an opera recording on the phonograph, and I warned the visitor that it's best not to interrupt while he's listening to his music - I didn't say this, but I'm pretty sure opera is the only thing that man loves aside from violence - but the visitor ignored me. Shortly later I hear the visitor scream.

I'm looking at a painting with the artist beside me. St. George and the dragon - I recognize that the dragon is meant to be myself. After noticing that, I recognize who St. George is meant to represent too. I say to her, very slowly and deliberately, "George can't save you." Whether I can do anything for her either isn't certain, but "George" definitely can't, despite what he believes.

A production of Faust, I'm going over a written list of the scenery needed for each scene. One scene is described as the Altar of Hell, and I have a mental image of Faust being pinned to a circular stone by two demons; that's the contract signing scene. The next scene is set in a field surrounded by trees, and my perspective changes so I see this as the audience would.

Curtain rises on Marguerite and women of the chorus in the field; shortly afterward Faust enters from the right. In response to what the women had been singing, he sings something satirical about the dangers of love and the unfortunate fools who are caught up in it. This annoys Marguerite, and she turns away and pointedly ignores him. The women of the chorus exit, and Faust realizes how angry Marguerite is, so he jokes around in the hopes of getting back in her good graces, teasing her by singing a humorous song that starts with a verse about roosters and hens. She forgives him easily, and by the time he gets to the chorus she's joined in the song, flirting right back at him. The second verse is about deer and hunters, and she playfully leads him on a chase around the stage. As they exit, laughing, Mephistopheles strolls by in the background, keeping an eye on how things are playing out.

(Woke up. Back to sleep.)

There are four men, or people who were once men and are now weapons, kept chained up in their sleep. Two 'chains,' really - the collars around their throats, but also something much deeper that's never meant to be removed. I'm removing that second 'chain' from each of them. They wake up as I do so, and their first reaction is to moan about the pain, but gradually they regain a sort of awareness. It's interesting to watch - they're becoming aware of how much of their personality has been stripped away from them, but without actually regaining that personality they lost. Their master arrives then, and I expect them to attack him in revenge - that's the whole reason I freed them - but instead they cower in the corner, just looking at the pair of us.

Memory gap. Next thing I remember, I've gone semi-lucid in order to pursue that master of theirs. He's closed himself off inside a tower where I shouldn't be able to follow, with an irritatingly arrogant attitude about it - he's essentially the god of this place, it won't allow me entrance if it goes against his will. Or at least it's not supposed to. The tower's a sort of futuristic art deco confection, lots of spheres and glowing purple lights, and I'm flying around it, demanding that it create an opening. With my next pass around the tower, I find an entrance has been created, opening onto a single room containing an elevator. It signifies that this place is as willing to depose its 'god' as I am. I take the elevator up to that man's private sanctuary - the elevator doors open to show me a vast pool lined with twisted white trees without leaves, and quite a lot of statues, including some of himself. This guy is unbelievable. There's a mansion at the far end of the pool, and I expect his mental trail to lead me there, but instead it leads me off to the right, to another body of water, and I focus on a light at the end of a pier.

August 29 2013 - Dream Fragment #1 I remember suddenly being jolted awake at my house. I didn't do an RC (very odd, as I've been setting pretty strict rules about how much I reality check, and I hoped that this rigorous schedule would help) and so I went on in an nLD. I remember in some way getting to this flattish house that was very, very luxurious by my standards in waking life but very normal there. One of my friends from WL was there and he asked me what game I wanted to play. I said "Block War" (or something along those lines) and he said, "Teach me how to play Block War!" I carefully explained it to him. (I cannot for the life of me remember the description but it had to do with a whale at the end for some reason) So we played that for a while and then he wanted to go check out my PC, so I showed it to him. I realized there was no mousepad so I tore up the house looking for one and I found it. I remember leaving and then going somewhere but getting murdered before I could do anything.

Dream Fragment #2 I remember having to go retrieve something and my vision flashing, "Episode 1". I went to this YMCA-type place near where I live IWL, more or less, except everything was different. When I got there I saw some people that I hate from school throwing around a frisbee on an extremely steep dirt hill. I was wearing flip-flops and had to walk down it to see where I wanted to go. I almost wiped out a few times but I managed to get to the bottom. I was then thrown into a few trivial tasks that I cannot remember but at some point aliens invaded and completely destroyed this mansion next to the YMCA and used it as their base. I saw I couple of celebrities walk down from above and come over next to me. They looked like they wanted to fight the aliens, and I agreed, but I said I want to talk to them first (WHAT IN THE HELL WAS I THINKING? I'M NOT A DC!) so I walked up to the front door of the mansion. The door opened into a makeshift council room of sorts. There were about eight normal-sized aliens in the room and like 2 bigger ones, probably about seven and a half feet tall. I asked them what they wanted. Not a good idea. It got me eaten my one of the bigger ones, while the famous people started fighting them. I woke up and laughed really hard at my dream action. I think it was form listening to the newest podcast about treating DCs with respect before bed lol.

So, last night I experienced my first MILD LD, YAY! anyway's.. I've almost forgotten everything about it but im still gonna tell you what I remember, okey ?

Well, I was wondering around in some sort of a Dark House Labyrinth Thing Place when all of a sudden I realized that all of the exits were jammed(the doors looked like some sort of Giant Steel Safe Door's). I was alone at first.. but all of a sudden the urban labyrinth was crowded with people. There was a great panic and everyone was desperate to find a way out!

I't was then that I realized that none of this was real!

I escaped the labyrinth and headed outside to the titanic trash yard looking terrain only to find a dark figure asking me how I wanted to summon my subconscious. I thought about that for a moment.. I wanted it to appear in the form of a Talking White Raven, but then I thought it would be hilarious to spawn it as an Atheist Opera xD(it seemed hilarious at the time )

I remember asking it a question which was however not granted with an answer.. I just stood there and did nothing.

The thought didn't cross my mind to use any powers such as flying, teleporting or morphing. Talking to my subconscious seemed to be the most fascinating thing to experience in my dreams.

Suddenly, I felt an immersive urge to talk to two of my friends about what had happened, when all of a sudden I had teleported to a place where my friends where at the time :O They where climbing a balcony of some sorts. The brick built apartment complex was in the color of of brown and grey and resembled a titanic version of the small apartment residence of Sienna Gardens, Edinburgh of where I had once lived.

Before I could tell them anything, I was suddenly awoken by the dog...

Sweet Dreams..
-HipStar

1. I'm attending Cincinnati Opera's production of "The Magic Flute." It seems to take place in a great hall instead of the traditional auditorium, and our seats have rather bad views. However, the ambiance is very nice, a candlelit affair. Plates of food are brought out with appropriate themes for every aria, and each patron is given a book with explanatory notes to the action.

2. I'm playing in a chess tournament at the local library, and I manage to win the whole event. I get $100 from a large roll of cash as my reward; I notice that there are ticket stubs and coupons attached to the end of the roll as well. I start to browse the library, which has recently expanded its collection to include food and wine. Little samples can be "checked out" for tasting purposes. I sample a decent white wine, and as I do the old lady who organized the chess tourney asks me to complete her bridge foursome. I'm reluctant, but I eventually agree and text my mom that I'll be late to meet her.

1. My friends from a recent RPG campaign have gathered to perform a work of music I've written. I am leading the ensemble with a marimba, while C.W. plays flute, V.W., K.R., and M.G. all play various percussion instruments. The work is energetic and the conductor is very much into it; there's an extended section of dueling percussion soli.

2. I get a bulky letter from a great-aunt and uncle I hardly know, and on the outside is written something like "If you love us, you'll be much more important." We go to visit them at their sprawling southern plantation-type home, approaching through a huge bluegrass field with a great oak tree as a centerpiece. The great-aunt sees me from across the field and beckons to me; I run away, although I'm not sure why and am a bit embarrassed.

3. I'm in downtown Cincinnati with my brother for some reason, when I realize that I'll miss the opera if I don't go home and change into nice clothes. The crowds outside Music Hall are horrible thanks to the traffic of a Reds game and ticketing problems at the venue. As I walk to the ticket window, MB. T. and her friends jump out of a car and begin to walk behind me. I double my pace to avoid them, but she calls me and I turn around to hug her anyway. A random acquaintance from college, Jessica B., remarks "smooth move," but no one else present thinks this remark is appropriate.

4. I again run into MB at a games club/cigar making club?

5. I'm playing pro baseball, which is serious business in the dreamworld. I miss an important catch, which leads our team to a loss. I am summarily expelled from the team and jailed. In my cell, I get a call from another criminal asking if I want to sell drugs. I act like I have some to receive visitors, then take advantage of the open gate to run like crazy. I get shot but keep running anyway.

1. I'm watching an old couple do a live broadcast of some comedic radio show. They only get a couple of lines in, the last of which is "He's always so polite," before I false-awaken into my bed. I start to write it down in my dream journal, when suddenly I hear "Habenera" from Carmen blaring in full orchestral beauty. This causes me to check my dream journal, and sure enough, my handwriting is unstable! I get lucid and try to stabilize, rubbing my hands together and feeling the bed beneath me. Things are solid and quite real feeling, and I try to engage as many senses as possible. I start thinking about where to take the dream while still stabilizing, and this continues for a good twenty seconds. However, I lose control before I'm able to do anything.

2. It's after the civil war, and my embarrassed family is ordering drinks from our former slaves who are now free employees of a restaurant.

1. I'm doing my grocery shopping and wander down the frozen food aisle. Suddenly, all of the TV screens in the isle start to synchronize and launch into a 15 minute presentation about a certain brand. I watch, dumbfounded, and I remember feeling rather convinced. At the end of the presentation, I start to move, but from the end of another aisle a stage flips out. It's filled with opera singers who proceed to launch into a Handel oratorio. To my surprise it's actually rather good, full of humor and some bawdy behavior (such as men kissing) that strikes me as inappropriate for the era. When the show is over the stage folds back into the aisle and I continue shopping. At the end of my purchases, I get confronted by several employees for tipping the produce scales and trying to cheat on the price.

2. I'm at an awesome kid-focused science museum with tons of demos. I recall fingerprint powder, wind tunnels, and infrared cameras. There's also a flight harness to simulate low gravity, and I put it on to fly effortlessly around the room. I'm a little big for the apparatus, though, and I'm constantly on the verge of crashing.

3. I'm competing in the Winter Olympics, where there's now an "extreme skiing" event. This is done as a co-ed event, starting with a beauty contest where the female half of the team shows off her assets. The other part of the event is a breakneck downhill race where the course goes through moguls (and wooden stairs). I finish in second, right behind my female partner, so we win the gold!

1. I'm attending some sort of video game expo, watching a high-production pitch for a game that seems sort of a cross between Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Auto. During the demo, one of the military showpieces breaks. The presenter gets angry and shouts, "We'll make a fucking car!" A sports car proceeds to unfold from the wreckage of that showpiece.

2. I attend a showing of the movie "Beat It," a cartoon parody of Michael Jackson's life starring Wayland Smithers of the Simpsons in the main role.

3. I am taking part in the chorus of an opera, a modern-day production about the pirates of Africa. The pirate queen is making her grand entrance, cuing a major dance scene; I screw up my footwork, and although my fellows try to accommodate me, eventually the whole number turns to shit.

4. I'm walking around in Paris, France, when I see two men leave a nondescript building. I go to check it out, and find that the building is both unlocked and the French atomic research center. I do parkour down the stairwells of the building to find a top-secret biology paper (something about genetics, and text so a failed RC) lying about. I leave without incident and take the paper back to my rural research station, showing it to my professor K. (who reacts in IRL character).

Something about... a museum... or some kind of exhibit... there were menacing punk rockers... or really like a combination of that and 50s greasers...

Me being upset because they turned my sculpture into some sort of weird hanging chandelier piece and it wasn't accurate to the concept drawing at all...

Something about... I don't know, Broadway opera singers in weird pink fluffy costumes and big fake wigs floating through a giant cotton candy machine.

Then I was fighting with Mom about plane tickets, she'd bought tickets home for everyone but me...