lucid

Working Recovery:

I'm at work, outside, on the garden path between buildings.
NH from high-school marching band is there.
He has some kind of injury to one arm and to one leg.
The injuries, are exceptionally gory, like stumps where the hand and foot should be.
NH seems like he is in a good mood regardless.
...
I'm on the production floor, but the office cube area is reversed from left/right and under construction.
There is a tarp that goes over all the cubes, indicating that they are inaccessible.
...
Later I'm with NH at a back-area of the production floor.
His injuries seem to be lesser now, with just bruised limbs where the stumps once were.

WBTB:
I woke up after about 7.5 hours of sleep (11PM to 630AM) and then stayed up for about 45 minutes before going to sleep on the couch for a morning nap.

False Awakening:

I'm at home and taking out the trash. I notice that there are a few more trash/recycle cans than there should be. About 4 or 5 against the expected 2.
I do a nose-RC and become lucid. I recall the 'pre-flight check' from Daniel Love's book, so I decide to attempt that.
I say outloud "this is a dream, nothing is real, nothing can hurt me."
I look around the yard, trying to interact and stabilize the dream.
But this only lasts a few seconds or so, and the world fades.
I vaguely recall trying to fit my hands into some kind of gardening pot by the front door or side of the house.
...
I 'wake up' on the couch, and my family is there. Dad, sister, brother, and my friend DR.
We are taking turns playing a VR game, where the perspective of the person playing the game shows on the TV.
...
Later I'm in a different room, with pillars on four sides and 'open concept' entry ways.
I'm struggling with some straps on the VR setup for my arms.
There were also two different sizes for the VR goggles, and a smaller one fits me better.

Recorded at 940AM.

The Bulldog:

I'm sitting on a patio chair looking out to a sunrise. I'm high up, a few stories above the ground.
The patio is made of large wood pieces, similar in style to Frontier Land from Disneyland. Within the lore of the dream, we had just built it (my Dad, sister, and I).
I looked at my left hand and noticed that it had three fingers, and I looked at my right. It had four.
I become lucid. The very next thought is that I want to learn more about my dreamworld, to serve me better later.
So I decide to keep looking at my hands. They keep changing in finger count wildly, not fast or as if morphing, more like my brain kept trying to convince me that they had 'always been' said count.
It was more like my perception was in flux than the actual visuals. Tough to describe.
This activity doubles down on the fact that I truly am dreaming.

I decide to get up and look around. I see a man down below in a pool, he's singing on a platform in the middle.
Also, across the way there is another man singing. I listen to them for a while, but I can't recall the tune now.
I noticed a bulldog down by my heel. I feel a massively comforting presence. I don't recognize this dog but I feel the comfort anyway.
He is wearing some sort of skin(or should I say fur) tight dog-shirt.
I remember that I should be stabilizing the dream, so I run my hands across the wood railing a bit.
I notice that the patio is missing some pieces, and get concerned about the stability of the structure.
I decide to go the the side of the house, and once I turn the corner, it represents the side of the house I'm living in now.

The bull-dog is sitting in front of the gate that leads to the front yard. I go up to him and start to pet him.
"Are you a bulldog?" I ask.
"Yes, I am!" the bulldog replied with a British accent.
"Can you tell more more about you so that I can find you in my world?" I ask.
"Ohhh you shouldn't do that...because I have...my issue." the bulldog replies ominously.
I notice he is drooling a bit.
"Well, what is the issue?"
"I....tend to wet the bed." the bulldog admits with some shame in his voice.
I start to comfort the bulldog, but then I begin to lose lucidity.
Instead, I start telling the bulldog a story of a recurring dream. It's about not making finals for marching band back in high-school.
I try to recall the name of the girl who was our drum major who broke the news, but I can't remember her name (just her face).
This isn't actually a recurring dream.
An Asian girl appears behind him as if in response to the story, but she doesn't resemble anybody from it.
At this point I seem to get my bearings, and I start to narrate what has happened up to now, to the bulldog.

"So I've spent a lot of time in this dream letting things flow on their own, observing, doing RCs, keeping it low-key. Do you think it is OK if I try some dream control now?" I ask the bulldog.
"Yes, that seems reasonable." the bulldog replies matter of factly.
I walk forward and open the gate leading to the front yard.
It's night-time over here.
I remember that I want to try the teleport-sprint from another dream, so I position myself on the street with plenty of runway space in front of me.
But there is a festival happening on the street. Lots of people. This prevents me from having space.
I get the impression that the dream characters are not fans of what I am about to try, slightly hostile.
They don't stop me when I went to find a new position, but one guy did bump me as I passed.
I don't visualize a particular place. I break out into a sprint with the night-road in front of me and close my eyes.
I feel my body shake, similar to the first time having a WILD transition. Feels like going through a wormhole.
When I open my eyes, I see blackness. I assume I have woken up.
...
I'm back on the patio with the sunrise, but this time I think I am awake.
"Wow! What a cool lucid dream, I'd better go record it before I forget!" I think to myself.
I enter the house through a doorwall and go to a computer.
This home does not resemble one I have lived in.
The computer has three or four monitors all setup, and looks super cool.
Dream-me has a program setup that will record my dreams as audio, and then auto-tune them.
So I narrate the previous dream as it happened in its entirety.
I mess up the recording so I have to start and stop a few times.
As I recorded it, the computer generated an animated movie, with the audio, as a musical.
The graphics resembled Final Fantasy VII: Remake's.
I'm invested in making the video good.
...
I'm back in my actual bed. My girlfriend is by me, and so is a dog. It may have been a german-shepherd.
Strangely, my sister is at the foot of the bed.
We're awake because we are concerned that there is an intruder in the house.
I felt safe, because the dog would be able to alert us if there was a problem.
My girlfriend tells me I should give my sister the larger pillow, and I tell her that she is already asleep so there is no point.
I reflect that the dog with us is not giving me an allergic reaction, so maybe I can have a dog after all.
...
I'm back at my childhood home, and I'm talking about the intruder with my Dad.
I look at the thermostat, and it reads '60 degrees'. I think it is low, but my Dad tells me that this is how it has to be.
I look over to the living room and see my Mom playing a video game. She's losing so she calls me over to help and I do.

Went to bed around 12:00AM.

Messy Awakenings:
I have a false awakening on my couch (where I currently was sleeping in waking life).
My uncle J is sleeping nearby. My dad is there and tells me that I should move to the bed so I don't hurt in the morning.
I heed the advice and head to my bed. When I entered the room, my sister is in my bed and there are some blankets and pillows on the floor.
The room is larger than I recall in waking memory but I don't pick up on the inconsistency at the time.
So as not to disturb my sister, I lie down on the floor and go to sleep.
While I don't recall exactly, I think this is where I must have reality checked and became lucid, because I realized that I had just gone to sleep, so I should reality check.
I'm now lucid in this larger version of my bedroom. My first thought is to take a deep breath and try to stabilize the dream.
But I'm not lucid enough to follow through and start engaging the senses. I only get through the deep breath.
While I do start to think about the dream being 'biological virtual reality', I don't truly engage with the question deeply.
I see a window at the end of the room and remember that I want to go to a new landscape.
I recall the blink-and-snap method for traveling from a Daniel Love video.
I close my eyes, imagine a grassy forest environment, and snap my fingers.
The ground underneath me has transformed into AstroTurf, but no forest.
I lose lucidity shortly after this.
...
Sometime later, I've regained lucidity and I'm with a girl that I know is my sister's friend. We're at my Grandma's condo.

Spoiler for Spicy Content:

She's angry with me about something. Out of pocket, I say "Well obviously the solution is to blow me."
Surprisingly, she agrees. I'm pretty excited about this. Another girl shows up and joins her. I can see the details of their faces...and what is on them.

When the activities are over, I consider whether I actually did finish in waking life.
I'm concerned about that, but it also transfers to the dream. I hurriedly try to make my way to a bathroom to inspect myself.
I'm now at the top of the stairs at my grandma's current condo. As I head down the stairs, it makes a lot of noise to my dismay.
But luckily it doesn't alert anyone.
I find a side door that I think leads to the bathroom.
There is an in-between passage that has another set of doors past it. There is a black poodle dog in here.
My sister is hot on my heels, and she chases me into the room.
But I hide behind the door as it opens (that's a classic trick of mine) and she doesn't find me. The dog gets a bit crunched as the door opens, but it doesn't mind.
After this I sneak my way to the bathroom to inspect, but I lose lucidity along the way.

Recorded at 1:08AM.

War Games:
I'm in a war. In the moment, it felt like a training camp, but later the dream treated it as if it had been actual combat.
I'm with a group of people, perhaps a platoon. The area is sandy and surrounded by wooden walls on all sides.
We're running forward trying to reach cover. The cover is on the left, and there is an enemy soldier sitting on a chair on the right.
I can't recall, but I may have attempted to shoot the soldier in the chair as I ran for the cover.
...
I'm in a room. We've lost the war, so I'm being held there as a prisoner.
I'm thinking about whether my friends are OK and what will happen to us.
TH from somewhat recently at work in waking life arrives at my holding area.
He is there to tell me that the others are OK.
Then, back to isolation.
...
Sometime later my niece shows up at the back window (the window is up high, since the room is partially underground).
I try to hide under a desk in the room because I don't want her to have to deal with her uncle being imprisoned.
She doesn't find me.
...
A phone in the room rings and I answer. The person on the line tells me that there might be a chance of me getting out.
There is a form that I can fill out and if done correctly I can leave isolation.
I pickup the form and go outside to where the guards are outside.
I approach them and ask what my options are.
One part of the form is asking whether I actually killed any enemy combatants.
I honestly couldn't recall if I had killed the man in the chair, and the guards seemed compassionate to my memory inaccuracy.
...
I'm in a cafeteria eating, so perhaps they let me go.

Recorded at 7:53AM.

Bathroom Wonder:
I'm in my childhood home, it is about highschool timeframe.
My friend DR is visiting, and my brother and him are across the hallway playing Super Mario Bros Wonder in the basement living room.
I'm in the downstairs bathroom, trying to rub one out. I recall thinking that I had been playing Zelda Twilight Princess recently (but I'm not sure why this detail is here).
The toilet I am sitting at is on the opposite wall that it should be,
I can hear my brother and DR talking about how good of a game Wonder is, in terms of the level design and how the music interacts with it.

Recorded at 7:53AM.

940 words for the night.

Went to bed around 11PM.

Ascending:
I'm in the garage of my childhood home talking to someone.
I don't recall what prompted it, but I start to perform a string of hand and nose reality checks.
Interestingly the first few checks act as I would expect in waking life. Maybe my brain was doing some next-level deception to distract me.
But then on the last nose reality check I can breathe. I become lucid.
I do an extra hand reality check to verify and it confirms that I am dreaming.
Linus from Linus Tech Tips is there in the garage, and he says "Great job becoming lucid!"
I think this might have been my brain attempting to invoke "Lucid Dream Tech Support" from Daniel Love's writings.
There are a few others there congratulating me, but I can't recall who.
I go outside through a side opening that isn't there in waking life.
The grass is long and very deep green. The world in general is dark and dim.
I try to increase the dream's brightness by requesting it outloud, but nothing happens.
I see that the moon in the sky is huge and bright.
I decide to start flying towards the moon, taking off superman-style.
As I fly, I recall that the scene is similar to that of the finale in the PC game, Everhood.
I think about how it would be fun to play the soundtrack from the game here.
I can hear the music I want to play in my head, but I can't remember what it is called.
In the dream, I falsely named it 'Ascending Heaven' and asked for it to play.
The song I had in my head was called 'Reconciliation' but even that was wrong for the scenario.
The song from the game that actually would have fit is called 'Euthanasia Rollercoaster'.
This doesn't work, but it plays something else I don't recognize.
As I accelerate to the moon, I lose my way (and maybe some lucidity too) and end up at my elementary school.
The school is just down the street from my home, so it sorta makes sense.
I'm flying high above the playground, now on a metal ring. Sorta like Goku on the flying nimbus.
The ring isn't slippery, so I don't struggle to stay on.
There is a full-on medieval war happening far below. I see two armies locked in combat.
I focus on an old man wizard wielding a staff, and then he sees me looking down.
Despite the supposed distance, he jabs into the air and strikes the metal ring and starts to pull on it.
I shake him off and dodge, but I lose lucidity shortly after.

Recorded at 12:26AM.

445 words for the night.

Went to bed at ???

Bad Pheromones
I'm in a school/college situation. It may have been mixed with my work cafeteria. ER from work a few years back is there.
I default to hiding my interest in her (as I did in waking reality), thinking that there is not a high likelihood of that interest being returned by her.
There is a vague situation where I smell bad (lack of deodorant, dirty clothes etc).
This makes the situation all the more tense.

Recorded at ???

I woke up from my alarm and started to get ready for work. I showered, dressed etc. But then I decided to call in for the day (and went bad to bed) because I felt crappy. So, that technically makes this a mid-morning WBTB, but I wasn't going for any kind of timing goal here.

Went back to bed around 8AM.

Getting Lost at Costco
I'm at Costco with my girlfriend.
I do a nose RC out of habit and become lucid. I also do a hands RC, and I have baby-hands branching off my fingers. Nice.
I'm thinking that this is a great opportunity to try baked goods and see what they taste like in a dream.
Ape-brain kicks in at this point though, and activities ensue with my girlfriend.
She comments that since this is a dream, it doesn't matter that we are in public.
After that, I try to find the bakery section but lose my lucidity before reaching it.

Summoning Snow
I'm at home and did a nose-RC in the hallway, becoming lucid.
My brother is there. He had a nerf gun, but I mostly ignored him.
I did stabilization (narrating, rubbing hands/feet). I had the presence of mind to try to stand still, observe the dream environment, and ground myself.
The dream started to fade, but I managed to hold on. The same dream reformed, and I repeated my reality checks + stabilization. I felt pretty happy about this.
I reflect that maybe past dreams 'fading' were just my brain attempting to wrestle lucidity from me and succeeding. But this time I beat it.
I went out to the living room area, it's a long room instead. I wanted to go somewhere more interesting.
I remember one method for traversal is association/reframing, and also that my previous attempts at portals have been lackluster.
I think about where I would like to go and decide on a snowy place. I wonder what association might help my brain generate such a place.
I decide to imagine an ice pick and search around the living room for one, but no luck. I head outside.
There is a bit of snow on the ground, sort of like when snow that had been there previously has mostly melted. I find the ice pick on the ground in the yard.
I vaguely recall seeing my brother outside too, but then there was an older woman there. Not someone I recognized now or then.
The woman tries to advise me on lucid dream ability. She tells me that I have done well, but need to move on now.
I take the advice to mean my summoning of the ice pick went well, but I should try something new.
Where there is normally brick wall in my yard, there is a wooden fence. There is a beautiful New Zealand-esque grassy field landscape beyond the fence.
I jump over the fence and fly into the distance.

Alternate Silverlight
I am in a futuristic city with silver skyscrapers, lucid, and flying around.
I wonder whether this place is another interpretation of Silverlight (a fantasy forest I've been trying to get to).
I'm in a crowd with some DCs. The DCs know I am there, lucid, and dangerous to them. They have been warned by something.
I didn't do anything with these people and just flew off again, enjoying the dreamscape. This environment is much more interesting than my typical lucid dream fare.

Recorded around 10AM.

This was another surprise. My sleep schedule has been terrible. I hope these spontaneous lucids lately mean that my work with dreamsigns and awareness is paying off!

Went to bed around 2AM.

Dancing with Cars
I'm outside my childhood home. The yard looks like a mixture of heavy green and blue hues.
I perform a nose RC and realize that I'm dreaming.
My first thought is to try and stabilize, so I start rubbing the tree in the front yard. It's kinda wet, and I rub my feet on it too.
The dream is very vibrant, with the aforementioned green and blue hues. I wonder to myself if this is what people mean by 'dreamlike'.
I'm rubbing my hands and the tree trying to stabilize but the dream is fading. I started having a mental dialogue.
Sure, this is fading, but even if we have to WILD back in, we should be able to save this attempt.
I held on to the tree trunk, not wanting the dream to end.
To my delight, the dream fades back in. My tactile sense comes back first, holding the tree, and then my vision.
I walk away from the tree and I'm still rubbing my hands together. I narrate outloud what I'm doing as I move.
"I'm dreaming, rubbing my hands, and walking."
"This is a dream."
"I'm dreaming, rubbing my hands, and walking."
"This is a dream."
I approach our next door neighbor's garage door and notice that instead of an actual garage door, there is a set of regular doors in a line.
Perfect. I can use that to go somewhere new. However I'm not lucid enough to think about going to Silverlight Way (fantasy forest goal), and I decide that I want to go to Australia.
Before attempting to open the door, I visualize a green/yellow hued, wild jungle. I really focus on trying to hear the bugs, animals, branches and all that. This aligns with Australia apparently.
I say "Jungle!" and open the door.
And as is tradition at this point, I see a boring neighborhood on the other side of the door.
I shut the door, try again. Fail. This repeats a few times.
On the final try, I get a slightly different looking area. The architecture of the buildings looks a bit more interesting and there is a highway structure with cars high up.
I decide that is a more fitting setting for a lucid dream, so I go through the door.
I emerge into a street, and out in front of me is a set of tall buildings and the highway up in the sky. It's definitely night-time here.
I wander around a bit, enjoying the dream scene and sense of freedom.
...
I'm in a plane-hanger, talking to a tall man that may have been a coworker from long ago. The plane hanger is in the same environment as before, but I lost lucidity at some point.
He's telling me about an acne problem a current coworker, JG, has.
...
I'm wandering and realize that I haven't flown yet, and my lucidity comes back.
I take off towards the tall highway structure.
Music starts to play. It's melancholy, upbeat, but also happy. I can still hear it and I'm wondering if the melody exists already in the real world. It reminds me of Foals a little bit. There was a repeating three note rhythm, and the final lyric in the pattern was 'stop' or 'shop'.
I land on the raised highway structure. I think to myself that lately I haven't really demonstrated a high-level of dream control. I remembered some people on DV that talked about facing that DCs aren't real, and going through with dangerous situations.
I look out to the oncoming traffic and decide that I'm going to interrupt it. I hover in midair on the highway, just a foot or so above the ground.
The first car comes by, and it grazes me on my right side. As it approached it looked like it was moving around 75mph, but when it was close to me, it was more like 30mph. I slide my hand across it as it goes by.
The music from earlier is still playing. The next car approaches, and I do a 'wax-on, wax-off' motion on my right side. The car wildly flips in the air and flies off into the distance. I'm flipping cars with telekinesis in rhythm with the music.
It's total carnage, and I'm just like, vibin' with the music. But it turns out the DCs don't like to be tossed into oblivion, and cars start to park and queue up to block the road. They are getting out of their cars and approaching me. Chasing me.
The music is still playing, so it doesn't feel like a nightmare. More like a music video. I'm flying, running, and jumping to escape them.
Eventually I reach a garage-type area. BD from highschool is there, and he is trying to handcuff me with a bunch of different types of cuffs, but none of them are working.
One of them though, works, and bands my hands together. It's made from a silicon-material, similar to my smartwatch band.
...
There's a spinoff conversation about Apple TV remotes being smooth, and JG from earlier in the dream is showing off that she has a special edition one.
I've lost lucidity at this point.

Recorded at 7:25AM.

This one caught me off guard. I've failed to go to bed at my planned times, so I didn't attempt a WBTB. But regardless, my brain decided to give me a lucid dream

Went to bed around 3AM.

Lucid Fruit
I'm in the backseat of an SUV/minivan looking out the window.
I get a vague sense that the world looks too bright so I do a nose RC.
I can't believe it, but I'm dreaming!
I look around and admire the world. It's a bright sunny day.
I'm with a family. It might have been my girlfriend's but I didn't look closely.
The car parks at a grocery store parking lot.
I decide to roll withe flow of the dream and walk with the group to the entrance of the store.
When we get in, I see a man stocking the fruit near the front of the store.
I decide that I should stabilize and I start rubbing my hands.
I try to remember if I have any specific goals in mind, but there is what feels like a block on my memory.
I ask the man how I can better stabilize the dream. He tells me to touch all the fruits and feel the surfaces.
I start to do this, but the dream fades.

Woke up around 12:30PM.

Went to bed around 1AM.

Pre-WBTB

Fragment
Brief impression of a Punch-Out-like video game.

WBTB
Ratio: 6hr/20m
Supplements: None.
Sleep Cycle: Semi-stable.
I got up and walked outside of for a bit, doing plenty of reality checks. I try to make the entire time outside a reality check.
I also review my dreamsign list, trying to commit the top 5 to memory.

Post-WBTB

The Vanishing Plant
I'm walking around in my living room and I do a nose RC out of habit.
To my surprise it fails and I become lucid.
I remember that narration is supposed to help stabilization so I start talking out loud.
"I'm rubbing my hands, I'm rubbing my feet, I'm walking."
I think about what I should do next and consider taking a bite out of the kitchen table, but then decide against.
It wasn't all that exciting last time I did that.
I recall that my goal was to try and observe my dreamworld, to gain an understanding and hopefully a feel for the 'dreamlike'.
I leave through the front door and go outside.
It looks near identical to reality, sunny summer day, except there is a plant nearby that is missing the bottom.
Like in a video game where a texture is missing.
I note that daytime/sunny is one of the top dream signs, and wonder if there are more 'missing textures'.
I also connect this missing texture idea to my top dreamsign which is 'video-games or inspired by a video game'.
"I'm walking around, I'm observing the dreamworld, I'm rubbing my hands," I say outloud, attempting to stabilize again.
I decide that I want to go somewhere more interesting, so I close my eyes and attempt to transform the scene into something else.
I think vaguely about changing the season into fall or winter.
I open my eyes with hope, but the scene only changes slightly. Objects have changed position, but no theme change.
I recall flying through the neighborhood some more, but my lucidity fades.
...
Later I'm in somebody else's house, lucid and looking around.
There is a woman I don't recognize, vaguely Hispanic looking.
"Is there a portal around here?" I ask.
She replies in the negative.
Despite this, I open a closet nearby and try to imagine a green swirly portal inside.
Nope, just closet.
...
I'm at a sleepover at work with my coworker JM.
Apparently we have to sleep there because there is a test we are running.
We have sleeping bags setup on the production floor.
I feel as sense of awkwardness because there are people around us working and I wonder if I should be doing the same.
Recorded on waking at 9:15AM.

Notes
I'm going to start a series of 4 tests for the 6hr/20m/none configuration with this being #1.
Initial impression is my control and dream length were lesser compared to 6hr/10m/8mgGal (Galantamine). This could be unrelated to the configs, and due to the currently only semi-stable sleep cycle.
I want to test whether galantamine is needed for more vivid dreams, and also if my 10m WBTB wake time is limiting my lucid dream experience.
I know that changing multiple variables at once isn't the best science (but I intend to test more configurations later).
General guidance for WBTB seems to recommend much longer than 10m, so I perceive a likely improvement by making it longer, hence earlier testing of this configuration.

Notes
This is by far the best lucid I've ever had. Part of me was hoping that this WBTB would fail because then I would have 3/4 fails for 6hr/10m configuration for WBTB (and therefore a clear indication that I should try something else) but now I basically have 50-50 results with it. Sigh. At least the walk and extended waking RC session were different. Maybe that was the key.

Pre-WBTB

Fragment
A vague impression of a field, like a fairground. Dragonball Z characters are there. Almost didn't count this because of how vague it was.

WBTB
I did everything the same as the previous 3 WBTBs (10 minutes and 8mg Galantamine). Except, I decided to take a walk this time. So I walked to the end of the street and back. It was nice. It's finally cooling off around here so the morning air was very pleasant. I spend the time outside walking thinking about "The Lucid Dreaming Portal" and his extended version of reality checks. I try to make the 10 minutes one long reality checking session of heightened awareness. I return to bed after that.

Post-WBTB

Counters & Pizza
I find myself waking up, and I think to do a nose-plug RC because I think it may have been long enough for a dream to form.
I can breathe, I'm lucid. I double-check with a hand-RC and I see more than five fingers on my left hand. Dream verified.
I get out of bed and rub my hands together to stabilize, but don't think to do more than that.
I go down the hall into my living room and think about how while the teleporting may be challenging, I can still get points other ways.
I think about how last time I licked a wall (and the judgement of the result) so I take a bite out of the edge of the counter.
It's very hard on my dream teeth, and honestly I barely get any actually into my mouth. It tasted a bit like how dust smells, but hard to describe.
Then I wonder if that is going to count, so I look for something else.
Because my brain must believe I am a slob, there are two boxes of cold pizza on the counter nearby.
One of the them is square-cut and resembles Jet's Pizza, which is one of my favorites from back home (they have one here in AZ but it is out of the way).
I pick up a slice and bite in. It it super-hard like the counter was but I can still taste the tomato sauce. 1/10 do not recommend. Maybe the counter taste was still in my mouth.
I feel the dream start to fade and I enter the void.
...

Hugging the Goose
I test out opening my eyes and they are heavy. Instead of doing that, I try to visualize my bedroom.
This works. I get a feel for "dream-eyes" versus "real-eyes" that I didn't really understand before when people talked about it.
I get up for another round.
This time, I think about other things I haven't done yet, and I remember that I told my girlfriend in waking life that if I lucid dreamed about her I would give her a hug.
So I call out to her "Goose! Where are you!" (I call her The Goose because she is basically the goose from Untitled Goose Game, nothing to do with Top Gun).
No answer, but I find her in the living room. I walk up to her and give her a hug. She seems happy to get the hug
I notice that there is a ring on the side table nearby, so I think that maybe I could use the ring to practice proposing to her.
It was at this moment when I realized that I don't know what knee I'm supposed to kneel on.
I start to feel the dream fading again.
...

Great-Grandma and the Sledgehammer
Back in the void. Not letting go yet. I visualize my hands in front of me and end up laying in my bed.
Round three, back on my bullshit: Time for the Elusive Fantasy Forest™.
I walk out of my bedroom once again and start looking for ways to teleport.
My girlfriend is there in the living room and I think to try out Saiz's advice.
"Hey Goose, is the elusive fantasy forest behind me?"
"...NO!" she says resolutely.
So much for that. Maybe I can try something else. I remember Lang's advice and go into the kitchen.
I open the fridge and shove my face in. I try to visualize a green swirling portal inside.
Despite seeing a weak green glow at the back and spending some time with my face in the fridge among the food, no luck. Damn.
I look around for other options. I notice a closet door that isn't normally there. It's white and has a yellow-colored metal handle with a spiral design on it.
It is identical to the ones from my Grandma's and Great-Grandma's homes growing up. I enter.
Inside is a small room with white tiling from the floor all the way up the walls and ceiling. The door has disappeared behind me.
Trapped.
I see the tiles start to fall off, revealing new tile beneath. As the tiles fall, ♫ music ♫ starts to play.
Yep. My brain is hilarious. The tiles are slowly revealing the Banjo-Kazooie title screen.
Guess I'm not going to be trapped in a nightmare room, but rather a weird one. Thanks for that brain.
As the scene is revealed, there are more than Banjo-Kazooie characters there.
There is some other animated character that is more sinister. Reminds me a bit of Freddy Fazbear, but less horror-themed.
Banjo and Kazooie are being chased by this character.
I still don't have a way out. This is all so silly.
I decide to try out old reliable. The Kamehameha. It's old reliable because it worked for me exactly one time in a lucid dream as a child.
I get into the iconic pose and start...
"Kuhhhhhhhhh...mayyyyyyyyyy.....haaaaaaaaaa....... mayyyyyyyyyy.......HUHHHHH!"
I see a blue energy swirl in my hands, but it doesn't shoot.
I think it might be because I said "KUH-MAY-HA-MAY-HUH" (which I think is the correct pronunciation) as opposed to the way I've always said it "KA-MAY-HA-MAY-HA". Brain didn't like that, I guess.
I start to panic a little.
As if in response, I hear someone yelling from outside the room.
"I'm gonna help you out! Don't worry I'll come back quick!"
It's my Great-Grandma (who has long since passed away).
I turn back to where the door was, and the wall blocking my way is gone.
I see my Great-Grandma in the living room carrying a seriously heavy looking sledge-hammer.
I tell here that I am OK and she seems content.
The dream starts getting unstable again.
...

Sexy-Time
Back in the void. Nope. Not waking up just yet. This time, it feels like I am in a valley between my mattress on one side and the lowered section of the bed-frame on the other.
I visualize my arms and hands in front of me and the dream pieces back together again. Back in my bedroom.
Round four. Still on my bullshit, looking for the EFF™.
I think it might be a good idea to get out of the house so I head to the living room again.
This time there is a knock at the front door. I open it and there is a woman there I don't really recognize.
She's a little overweight (but not excessively) and her skin is a bit tan. She has short reddish hair.
She has a friend with her but I don't really register her.
I wonder if this is an opportunity to earn more points. I decide to try out some DC-control.
"You're going to bend over on the couch." I tell her.
"OK." she agrees without any hesitation.
Fun activities ensue.

Spoiler for Spicy Content:

At one point she is riding me reverse-cowgirl and I wonder if I can try something crazy.
I visualize her transforming into another person. This is easier because she is facing away.
I can see freckles appear on her butt as it morphs into another shape. I see her hair grow longer and change to brown and curly.
This isn't exactly someone I know per-se, but rather, I'm just adding features I like.
The sex feels good but not like the real thing. Guess I could be lucid-er.
Then it occurs to me that I can probably drop whoever I want in here.
So I think about my girlfriend, and the body morphs again. The butt changes to hers, and I move my right hand up to her chest and my left down her front.
I confirm its her based on her voice.
She rides to finish.

The dream starts to fade once again.
...

Silverlight Way
It's a bit of a struggle, but I manage to come back one more time.
I find myself in the same bed-valley as before.
Round five. Same approach but now I actually manage leave through the front door.
It's fall outside, which isn't a season that exists in AZ in waking life. I enjoy the orange fall leaves.
Other than the impossible season, it looks accurate to my neighborhood.
There is an old man standing near my driveway. He's wearing a tracksuit and has short white hair.
I refocus back on the mission.
"Hey man, do you know where the enchanted forest is?"
"Oh! You mean Silverlight Way? It's over that way!" he says excitedly. He has a slight southern accent that I find appealing.
He points up past the houses across the street and over the horizon.
Jesus Fucking Christ. It's real and it has a name! Silverlight Way!
"Can you take me there?" I ask.
"Well, can you fly?" he says, like flying is as trivial as knowing how to play chess or something.
"Sure!"
He starts to float five feet or so in the air and I follow suit.
Feet are freedom units, from 'Murica. For our non-American readers, this translates to about 1.5 meters.
We start to fly in the vague direction he identified. As we go up, I see the road up ahead. It looks like San Francisco and its hilly streets. Still a beautiful fall-themed landscape.
We enter a town-like area and the old man uses telekinesis while flying on what I assume to be his car. A red sedan. It rises up into the air with us.
There is a large cube-like package tied to the bottom of the car as it floats.
He slides the package off the sedan and into a garage (since this is like San Francisco, the garage is on a slant going down away from the street) and then flies to the car's door as it opens on its own.
The old man is driving the car through the sky now, and I sit down in the front-passenger seat.
I see there is a teenage boy with mid-length black hair sitting in the front-middle seat. I understand that he is my brother and he is paralyzed.
He doesn't look like my waking life brother though. I start to wonder if this is meant to be some alternate reality, where the old man is my dad and this boy is my brother.
Later the car is back down on the road, and there is a group of people walking on the sidewalk. They are wearing hoodies and look a bit like they could kick my ass.
"Let's see, there are one-two-three-four-five-six-seven, seven people there. You could get like, thirty-five points if you get them all," I tell the old man sarcastically.
"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....OK."
Our old man then proceeds swerve and pretend to runover all these people.
I tell him that we probably shouldn't actually hit the people. Then, the passenger door opens and my 'paralyzed' brother climbs over me and jumps out. Guess he is feeling better.
I slide out the door as well (no seatbelts in this dream ya'll), and the old man flies off into the Autumn horizon. No Silverlight Way for me. God. Damn. It.
I find myself on some concrete steps going up near a building.
All alone, I think to myself. Just a guy, with the ability to fly and unlimited god-like dream powers...whatever will I do?!?!
Despite this proclamation, I can feel the dream starting to fade again. Not so god-like, it turns out.
...

School Conference
Plot-twist, not a false-awakening this time.
Now I'm in a school. It looks like one of my engineering classrooms from college.
My coworker B is there, and a few others. They are all discussing the epic lucid dreams we just had.
I become lucid again, because I realize these are my dream characters and they all remember the lucid dreams because of that fact.
I can feel that this dream is very unstable though and I let it fade. I've surely already forgotten details and I need to record.

Pre-WBTB

Fragment
Frieza from Dragonball Z is at a Home Depot store.
Recorded at 5AM, at the beginning of sleep cycle 5.

WBTB

During my 10 minutes of wake-time, I planned what I would do if I had a false awakening at my home. After taking the 8mg Galantamine and using the bathroom, I walked down the hall doing my series of reality checks. Then I rubbed my hands together. I also decided I should interact with the environment in some way, so I licked the wall. Yep. Gotta commit man. I wander around the house a bit, and decided I should find ways to teleport to the forest (step one of "The Plan"). I decide that I will summon an image of a forest on the living room TV and then step through it. Path forward established and my 10 minutes spent, I was content to lay down in bed. I tossed around for awhile and thought about just about every current life problem I have. Maybe I was too awake. After what felt like forever, I finally drifted off. No WILD though unfortunately.

Post-WBTB

Seeking The Elusive Fantasy Forest™
I'm waking up in my bed, and I immediately think to check for a false awakening.
I can breathe through my plugged nose.
I'm dreaming!
I decided to cycle through some more RCs just in case.
I look at my hands, and I have far more than five fingers on each hand. Yep. Dream.
I tried to see my nose on the left and right sides and I can. So according to that check I am awake.
To be fair I've never done that RC before so I didn't really know what to expect.
I default back to another nose-plug RC and I can still breathe. Definitely dreaming.
I recalled my plan from the WBTB prep, so I rubbed my hands and licked the wall. Yep.
It tasted like the real wall. Like paint.
I then find myself back in bed. Another false awakening.
I repeat the RCs, but this time my vision isn't quite coming to me.
I try to will my eyes to work. Nope.
I say "Heal my eyes!" It works a little bit. I say "HEAL MY EYES TIMES 1000!" It works a bit more.
This goes on for some time, and I'm getting annoyed.
I recall another technique where I "take off glasses I didn't know I was wearing".
I do this and clarity improves a lot.
Eventually my vision stabilizes to the point where I can focus on other things. Like my goals.
I can recall "The Plan" in it's entirety. Step one is to teleport to the fantasy forest.
I wander over to my living room, which now resembles a mixture of my actual living room and my friend M's.
My girlfriend S is there on the couch. I decide to play it cool and not tell her this is a dream.
Instead I say "Oh hello! How are you? I'm going into the TV now!"
I don't recall actually going through the TV, so I may have wandered away.
...
I find myself lucid in the garage later. I'm looking around for the Elusive Fantasy Forest™.
I look down, and hope that when I look up, the forest will be on the other side of the open garage door.
Nope.
Vivid green grass and neighborhood. At least that is consistent. It looks similar to how it did in my previous lucids.
I checked around the garage some more, looking for a door or something else I can use to teleport.
I find a storage cabinet and try to teleport Narnia-style, but no luck.
I lose my focus for a bit, and I end up walking out of the garage door and preparing to fly.
I kick off the ground hard and take flight. I specifically notice that my right leg doesn't hurt as I jump (In waking life I am recovering from surgery so jumping is normally out of the question).
I zoom around and enjoy the view. The grass looks even more vivid from up here. It takes on a pastel-like painting aesthetic.
As I take in the view I come to a realization.
There is nothing other than vivid green grass and dots of homes that look like legos from this high up, for as far as my eyes can see.
Maybe the reason I can't find my forest is because this entire goddamn dream-plane is a neighborhood.
I zoom around some more, and find myself using air-swimming to control finer turns. Haven't tried that before.
Also unusual, I land without losing lucidity. I remember that I still need to try this stupid teleporting thing.
I'm back at my garage now and I remember reading a tutorial somewhere on DV about "scrolling the world".
So I raised my hand as if I was about to swipe the world like an image in my phone pictures gallery, not really expecting this to work.
Except, against dream-rules, it does work despite my negative expectation. The entire world, my current view of it anyway, swipes to the left, and a new image slides in from the right, teleporting me somewhere new.
But of course, not the elusive Fantasy Forest™.
I see a big, vivid, blue ocean in front of me. The waves are almost caramel-like. They move too slowly. In other words, their viscosity is higher than it should be. They crash down lazily.
My family may have been there too, I can recall my Dad being present for sure.
I briefly consider exploring the bottom of the ocean because who knows what my brain would put there!
But I ignore the ocean and my family: I am on a mission dammit!
I turn to walk away from the ocean and I notice it is raining behind me, and there is a forest in the distance.
But then a car drives by in front of it. IT ISN'T A FANTASY FOREST! IT'S A REGULAR PRESENT DAY FOREST!
I start to think about other ways to reach the forest. In particular, I imagined it might be easier to seek out a campfire and go from there.
But despite my best efforts, before I reach the Elusive Fantasy Forest™ I find myself waking up, thinking I should try to record before I lose memory of this dream.
I wake.
Recorded at 7:45AM.

I didn't get the WILD or dream control I was hoping for, but there is a lot of recall here...so that's a plus!

Before WBTB

Sci-Fi Feeding Time
It's dark, night-time at a stable on a farm.
There are horse-like creatures and other monsters in sci-fi fleshy body bags.
Some of the horse-creatures are sitting on their backsides...and have huge upright dongs.
Like straight up into the air, 3ft diameter and 5ft high...
Someone is showing me how they care for the creatures.
They have one mature creature chew up food and spit it out.
Then they collect the mush and feed it to the younger ones.
The whole situation is very strange and I kinda wish I would've forgotten this one.

Fireshots and Frogskins
I'm in a team at Hogwarts and we are in the middle of magic combat with another group.
They are Slytherins or otherwise dark magic users.
It isn't a friendly duel, they are trying to hurt us.
I shoot some fire attacks at one of them and set their robes on fire.
I remark that the spell was meant for aesthetic uses, but very useful here.
I shoot off some stupefies and experlliarmises, and notice that I have multiples wands and they break as I'm shooting.
They sort of snap like twigs.
It feels similar to how durability works in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Later I'm in a downstairs living space or maybe a lab.
Mr. Weasley is there. He has a big frog creature. About 1ft tall.
I'm wanting the frog's shed-skin shell from him.
There is also information I'm needing. There was another person I was planning to bribe with the skin-shell.
But I realize that Mr. Weasley has the same info.
The room looks like my childhood kitchen now, with Mr. Weasley standing near the sink.
I ask him for the info, and indicate my understanding that I don't need to bribe him.
He pauses, gives me a look, sarcastically pauses...maybe a bribe IS needed...
But then gives me the info.

Cave Battle
JM from work and I are planning a dangerous trip to get treasure.
Later we arrive at the site.
I'm in an underground cave with a large rock blocking the entrance above.
Similar to a bombable wall from Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
There is a horde of orcs/goblin creatures above the wall chasing me. JM is above as well.
I'm searching the cave for the treasure. The monsters are getting closer to opening the rock.
I start to look for a weapon instead. I find a bow, but the arrows with it are dull.
They break through. I try to hide.
3 goblins make their way to the back cave chamber where I am at.
They chase me around the room and shoot arrows at me, I try to grab fallen arrows to fight back desperately.
J!!! HELP!!! I scream.
He shows up and helps me fight.

After WBTB
I head back to bed and focus on the forest I want to WILD into. I wait a long time, and multiple alarms go off interrupting my attempt. I eventually slip off to sleep without a WILD.

False Awakenings
I'm in my bedroom, thinking that I've wasted my time for the last day of comp.
Crap. I do a half-hearted nose reality-check just to be sure...
And I'm dreaming! But it fades quickly into another false awakening.
This happens a few times, but I never get real control of the dreams.
Only counting it as one dream because it all was sort of a blur.

Hey, You, You're Finally Awake
I have metal chains binding my arms together and I'm riding a cart through some valley.
I'm a prisoner, similar to the opening of Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.
My right eye is bound shut somehow and I can't find a way to move my body to free it.
I think about how maybe I'm sleeping with my eye covered...
I must be dreaming!
Despite being lucid, I can't do anything to free my eye.
When I woke up, I confirm that my right eye was, in fact, lodged into my pillow. Go figure.

Carpet Shower
I'm at my Grandma P's old house (the one with the big upstairs area and Jack/Jill bathroom).
My dad owns it now. He's talking to his friend about how great blowjobs are. I mean, I can't argue with the man.
There is a stuffed animal on a chair alone in one of the rooms. I don't see the significance of it, if any.
I'm searching for a shower and I find one in the middle of one of the big bedrooms over the carpeting.
It doesn't strike me as strange that a faucet is right in the middle of the bedroom wall.
I start to shower up, but my Dad interrupts me and I have to leave the room.

Unexpected Assist
I'm in an apartment similar to H and A's from a few years back.
We're down some stairs. H is giving me a strange look and I feel like she is into me.
Her and my girlfriend S are aware of my WBTB and WILD attempts, and are trying to help.
They set up a bed for me with a stuffed animal to help me sleep.

Panther Dinner Time
I'm in a fancy restaurant sitting outside. It reminds me of where we sat and got ice cream in Disneyland/California Adventure.
There is a large panther approaching the seating area.
It's aggressive and the crowd freaks out.
Then a man appears from out of the crowd and seems to know the panther.
He commands it, and manages to get it to jump onto a nearby brick wall and hang there.
The situation is resolved.

Conditions
Medium workout
Light dinner
Bed on time
6hr/30m WBTB
Yuschak Primary Trigger (8Mg Galantamine, 250Mg Choline Bitartrate)

Notes
So I still didn't get the result I was hoping for. There were some alarms my girlfriend had go off during the attempt, but I'm not sure I can 100% blame those for the failure. I think that given the challenge of falling asleep once again, 30m might be too long of a wake period. Intent was 20m, but by the time I had taken the supplements, recorded my dreams, used the bathroom, and reviewed my goals 30m had passed. I'm undecided if I want to test 6hr/30m WBTB one more time, or move on and try 6hr/20m in earnest.

Day-time (Nap)

Lucid in the Manor
I'm outside a manor looking place. It’s rainy. I go around the side and find the front door. I open it and it has a Mario Sunshine style doorway to jump into a level. I jump in.
I'm in my living room, but it is wider and has a tall ceiling.
Much bigger than normal. I put my hand out in front of me and starting counting fingers out of habit. Six fingers per hand.
That’s not right…I’m dreaming!
I do a nose RC several times to verify.
I keep my hands out in front of me to look at as a sort of lucid anchor.
I walk down the hall, but my dream starts to fade before I can save it.

Night-time Sleep

The Secret 10th Dungeon
I'm playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I'm walking on the surface and I get the "new location" HUD text for a new dungeon.
It tells me that it is the Secret 10th Dungeon.
I can see that there is air rising out of nowhere so I jump and activate the paraglider.
It takes me all the way into the Sky with floating structures all around.
I land on a larger structure and the HUD confirms again that this is the secret dungeon.
I'm very excited about this and start to explore.

The Dragon Roost Cup
I see Toon Link (Windwaker Legend of Zelda Style) fly by on some vehicle.
I understand that this is for a Zelda-themed Mario Kart game.
Characters are all riding Sky vehicles.
On the HUD, there is a Dragon Roost Cup title, and others, similar to how Mushroom/Flower/Star cups work in Mario Kart.
Not going to say this counts for Dragon Theme, since it was just a title and reference. Not an actual dragon.
I wouldn't be mad if I'm wrong on this though...

Airship Dining
I'm out for dinner with family. We're walking down the street together looking for a restaurant.
It's a rainy night and my Dad is there with my brother and I.
We are talking about diet, but still decide on pizza.
We come across one, where there is an airship tied down. The restaurant logo is 1800s-ish looking gentleman with tophat.
The quirk of the restaurant is that the airship lands at scheduled times and becomes available for seating, alongside standard ground-seating.
There is a rope mechanic where patrons help secure the airship.

Before WBTB

Russian Ride
I'm traveling internationally and I don't speak the language where I am at. I'm getting off a train or bus looking for the airport. I see another bus leaving and I wave my arms and chase it, yelling for it to stop. It does. I try to ask the driver where the airport is and he tells me (in English) that the bus is full. It clearly isn't. I wonder if there is some law saying there must be X number of open seats. Regardless, I stay on the bus and he doesn't kick me off. I make my way to the back of the bus. It resembles the CATA bus system from back home. In the back car is a girl with one leg. Short hair, kinda "bad-girl type". She has khaki pants on, and the missing leg has it tied to cover the stump. I sit next to her and ask for help. She's friendly.

Some time later we are back at her apartment. It's a big studio, kinda messy with paint and art all over the place. I realize that I'm a girl, and that she may be gay. I get the impression she might have been coming onto me.

Later I'm running from Russian agents. I'm running through an apartment complex, entering and leaving through doors/windows. I'm really high up. When I go outside I'm sidling on just-big-enough edges to not fall. I don't know why they are chasing me. I eventually make my way down from the tall complex and make it to the ground but I haven't shook them.

I'm in a down-town Chinatown type area at night. There is a big crowd of people and I'm trying to use them to escape from the Russian agents. I'm at a bar with two floors open to the outside. There are some TVs running with couches set in front of them. There are some dark corners I can hide in. I try out a few and crouch down, but I decide that none of them are good enough and keep moving. Then I stand up face-to-face with one of the agents. He looks like Dr. Brenner from Stranger Things.

Running again. This time it was short. I ended up in a stone building on a grassy hill, hiding underground. But they've just found me. There is the leader (Dr. Brenner) and two thug-types. They are going to torture me for information. I tell them I've only killed one time, and I wasn't sure if it was me or my uncle who pulled them trigger. I guess I was trying to intimidate them. It doesn't work. They casually talk to me about something and then without warning Dr. Brenner shoots my right ear off with a pistol.

I cry out in pain (S hears me and tries to shake me awake). It doesn't hurt as much as I expected it would. They tell me that they will shoot off the other ear if I don't comply.

I wake up and tell S I am OK.

After WBTB

W Aged Up
I'm at my Grandma P's house in the bedroom sleeping on the bed. I've slept in later than everybody else. I roll over and see some old drawings I made in my childhood on the wall. My grandma will have decided to have kept them. They are hyper realistic and drawn in pencil. Somehow, they are holographic. I think to myself that maybe I should get back into art.

W, my brother's son who is due in September, bursts into the room with his friend, Ian. He's four years old. I can't tell who is who and I feel bad about it. But now I know it is because W isn't born yet. One of them has buck teeth. I follow them around the house and then one kid is missing. I find W/Ian eating dish cleaning tablets under sink. Standard kid behavior I guess

Lucid Fragment
I'm in a large mall, reminiscent of one from an old marching band trip from high school. I do a nose reality check and realize I'm dreaming. I double take...crap! I was dreaming that whole time before with W! I think to myself that step one is to find my DG...but my lucidity slips and I wander off.

Conditions
Medium workout early in day
Big dinner
2 drinks of alcohol
Stayed up late
6hr/30m WBTB
Yuschak Primary Trigger (8Mg Galantamine, 250Mg Choline Bitartrate)

Notes
My theory on what happened here...sleep cycle issues. Instead of jumping into the same sleep cycle I was just in, I jumped into the beginning of a later one. I stayed up until about 2:30am playing Zelda and then set an alarm for 8:30am...so about 6 hours after sleep. I know that 5h45m has been a good target for me, so I was experimenting with a larger time to test and see if it can be improved. One problem though is that I didn't have an established wake-sleep rhythm. Plus, I stayed up longer than the typical 15m during the WBTB. I planned slightly longer at 20m but it was more like 30m. I don't think the alcohol will have mattered much because of the later timing, but it could have played a part. Lesson learned: Next time, have an established sleep rhythm. Gonna say data inconclusive about 6h/20m WBTB setup.

Pre-WBTB
No recall.

Post-WBTB
I'm up after about 6 hours, not ideal but timing restraints around the Easter holiday are constraining me. I've gotten up and taken my usual supplements. I'm now incubating what lucid dream I'd like to have. Shooting for these goals:

1. Visit the Elven Forest. Doesn't have to be super specific, just want to go somewhere wildly different than my usual dreams.
2. Apply meditation practice results. I want to sense my body to stabilize, and test out my new focus capabilities from listening practice in waking life.
3. Meet a dream guide. This entails actually confirming with the DC that they are my guide, not just assuming as much.
4. Eat cake or any delicious food. Currently dieting, so would be nice to have good food with zero consequences.

I'm imagining that I can go to the forest through a door like I tried previously, or try to go there directly from the WILD transition. From there, I can try to find the guide and ground myself. Then food! Back to bed, here we go.

I lie down and eventually feel the vibrations. I have a very short thought that getting flash banged and then shot during war would suck, and subsequently hope that I don't dream about that. Luckily, I didn't. I did realize though that going to Narnia through a wardrobe would be a great way to fulfil the goals I laid out here. Find a wardrobe, find the winter scene on the other side (Elven Forest), find Mr. Tumnus (Dream Guide), and have food with him (Delicious Food). I decided that this was what I would do. I don't get to WILD this time, but I eventually doze off.

Not Quite Narnia, But Not Bad Either
I wake up in my bed, but do a nose RC out of habit. I can breathe! I'm lucid. I immediately remember that I want to stabilize, so I think about feeling my body from the feet up and say "feeling my feet, feeling my legs..." all the way up to my head. I'm rubbing my hands together too. I have several false awakenings that start this way, so I suppose it didn't stabilize very well. One time (or two), I wake up in my Grandma M's old place from my childhood. I'm not 100% lucid here, but I do remember my old Doberman, Champ, and I false-awoke with my head resting on him. He seemed big and strong. He was a good boy.

I have another false awakening where my living room looks very different. It reminds me of my girlfriend S' grandpa's house. In the sitting room specifically. I see my dad, except he has black hair instead of the usual grey. His hair is still pretty short though. I'm exploring around this modified version of my house, one area looks like Grandma P's old dining room from the apartment, when I remembered that I want to go to Narnia. Maybe that meditation practice is helping me remember? I recall that my dad was standing in front of a wardrobe. I get excited. I can use that to get to Narnia! Maybe my dream put it there for that purpose, or it was coincidence. Convenient regardless.

I open the wardrobe, and discover that it has a bunch of drawers inside. Not a walk-in. Less convenient. Turns out my brain is a troll. I close it and start to look for other doorways. I go down a hall that isn't normally in my house and I see my girlfriend S sitting in bed at the end of it. She's looking pretty hot, and seems to be beckoning to me, but I am on a mission! I regret this choice a bit now. I see a bathroom through an open door in the hallway, and then another door next to it. I open it. It's a walk-in closet with a bunch of clothes in it. Perfect. I work myself into the clothes and start pushing. Just like Lucy in "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe". This is taking awhile and the clothes are pretty tough to push. I start to worry that I'm just going to wake up before I emerge anywhere, and just then I finally push through.

Snowy...ski mountain. Dang it. My brain really doesn't like to give me fantasy scenes, it seems. This time there isn't an obvious doorway where I came from, like the sewer pipe door from the last lucid. I seem to have just emerged out of thin air. So it isn't trivial to try for Narnia again. Oh well. I decide to explore this new environment. It is still cool! Just not what I'm after. Notably, I don't feel cold despite the snow and the wind. It seems like a little German-themed town, sort of like Frankenmuth, with a main street lined with shops and tourists. I start walking up a cobblestone path that leads up a hill. I'm still stabilizing using my body technique, and I reflect:

"Well, at least I sorta got one of my goals..."

Wait. Goals. Plural. There were others. What were the others?! I strain my brain a bit and then callout to the universe:

"DREAM GUIDE!!! Where are you?! I want to meet you!?"

I look around and nothing happens and then:

"Yo, wassup?"

A slightly overweight (but not unattractive) woman around my age saunters into view from over my shoulder. I recognize her as a version of the pink-haired girl from a few lucids ago. I was right. She WAS the dream guide. Her hair was a more natural color now, but I can't remember which. Also, she's still wearing the skimpy-leather outfit she was before, despite the fact that we are out in the snow. I guess that checks out, with my brain.

"Hi! What's your name?" I say.

"Hm..." she looks off into the distance and doesn't answer me. I ask again.

"..." she doesn't seem to want to answer, or understand the question.

"I'm going to call you Leather," I say.

"Hm...sure I guess," she replies.

Then, of course, my brain goes down the typical path.

Spoiler for Spicy Content:

"So, Leather, you're looking pretty hot. We could probably get away with some stuff before I wake up, if you want," I suggest casually.

"Hm... I wouldn't be opposed," she replies.

Right in the middle of the snowy street, she gets on top of me in missionary position. Before I can really feel anything I start to wake up.

I wake up fully shortly after. After doing a series of RC's to verify, I rush to record this dream before it fades.

Notes
Pretty happy with this! I would've liked to try some food, or otherwise do more exciting things in the lucid. I feel like I didn't time the WBTB quite right, but for a limited time-schedule that's alright. I'm super happy to have confirmed a dream guide! Although I'll have to verify a name...I'm not sure 'Leather' makes the most sense as a name. Probably wasn't the most lucid at that moment. Looking forward to adding some AI images to this post. Been practicing it and getting familiar with new tools so we'll see what I can come up with. I'm thinking at least the snowy mountain deserves so cool art. Maybe Leather can get a portrait? Don't want to be too much of a goon with that though. Just like, out of respect y'know. She's my dream guide after all.

Conditions
1/2 drink of alcohol
Big workout early in the day, healthy dinner but cookies later.
6hr0m/10m WBTB
6th Yuschak Primary Trigger Usage (8Mg Galantamine, 250Mg Choline Bitartrate)

Pre-WBTB

Fragment
I'm in a labyrinth maze. Viewpoint is from above.

Fragment
The Youtuber ProJared and somebody else is giving an apology speech on Distractible. It's a video, and Distractible is apparently a streaming platform like Spotify. I'm looking up what their policy is. My girlfriend SB says that they don't have a policy.

Post-WBTB

Actually woke up moments before my alarm went off. That's pretty neat. I took my supplements, used the restroom, and wrote down this entry. I slept just about 5 hours and 45 minutes, so in theory I should be entering REM cycle 4 at its' end. Maybe unstable dreams then? Hope not. Maybe I can get into REM cycle 5 from the get go after that.

I tossed and turned for quite a while. I was worried that I had wasted my time and the timing reset on the supplements (once a week for Galantamine if not using Piracetam). My phone goes off (who the hell is texting me at 7AM, savages) so I put it in airplane mode. That'll show 'em.

Supplement Interaction Gone Wrong
I'm tossing and turning in bed and I notice that I'm feeling nauseous. I fall over the side of my bed and struggle to get my vision into focus. Something must have gone wrong with the supplements and the alcohol. I feel drunk. SB is outside our room calling out to me.

"I have four parents here!" she said.

She probably wants some help hosting, I think.

"Wait four? Are any of our friends there?" I ask.

She replies in the negative. Great. So there are four people there that I probably don't know terribly well that I now need to entertain. And I feel drunk. I decide that the best thing I can do is try to sleep it off and then go help, so I get on the bed and rollback over.

Post-WBTB

Thank god. I'm awake and I feel better. There hasn't been an alcohol-supplement interaction. Nobody is visiting us at 7AM. I can resume my WILD attempts. I'm very relieved about this so I relax easier. SB has gotten up to start the day so I have the whole bed to myself. REM cycle 5 here we go. Vibrations eventually show up.

I start to see images slowly forming. I remember my past success visualizing my hands to 'grab' the dream, so I try to recreate that. I see a pinhole image at the end of the void. It looks like a beach. I start thinking about things I could grab onto. I see some streetlights. Perfect. I imagine the feeling of gripping the cold metal, and visualize my hands closing around them. I can already see my arms outstretched, and my right hand closing around the lamp.

California Chaos
I'm standing on a beach reminiscent of the California Boardwalk, holding onto a metal streetlight in my right hand. It's a beautiful sunny day. I've done it again! Successful WILD #2!


Beachside Bars. Made with Holara AI.

The first thing I do is approach a portly-looking man at a beachside bar and side down next to him. He vaguely looks like RR from work, or Carlos Mencia. I turn to him.

"Hey man. What if I were to tell you that this was a dream?" I say.

"WOAH. No way!" He casually dismisses the suggestion.

"Oh yeah? Then what about THIS!?"

I attempt to put my right index finger through my left palm to demonstrate a reality check, but I can't do it.

To be fair, I've never actually done that before. But looking back this is pretty funny. In the moment, it was also pretty funny.

"Okay forget that... then what about THIS?!"

I hold up my hand and count the fingers on it...1-2-3-4-5...6-7-8!

"WOAH. That's insane!" He exclaims.

"I'm gonna go cause trouble if you wanna come with me?" I ask him.

"Nah I'm good." He replies.

I get up. It would've been cool to create chaos with a partner in crime. I forgot all about trying to summon Aeon (name I've given to the dream-guide from the Desert planet). I'm wanting to get her advice on the dream world and see if I can ask her to make me lucid whenever she sees me in a non-lucid dream. I wander down the Boardwalk and come up to some cute girls sitting at a high-top table. I figure, it's a dream I can do whatever I want.

Spoiler for Spicy Content:

I ask one of them to stand up and bend over. She's wearing jorts. I spank her ass. Nice.

Anyway, moving on. I continue walking along the Boardwalk and come up on a brick wall. I recognize that the texture would be good to help stabilize, so I start rubbing the wall like a weirdo for a bit. Can't recall if it did anything other than make me look like a weirdo.

As I walked down the Boardwalk, I noticed that the dream started to fade to black. Instinctually, I started to focus on my arms, and gripping the dream. It is hard to describe, but I actively was resisting letting the dream fade. Miraculously, it worked. The dream was back, and I was still walking on that sunny day in the boardwalk.

I come upon some stairs going down into a sewer-like structure down below. I think to myself:

"Y'know, that seems like a great way to cause a nightmare...screw it! I'm going for it."


The Tunnel and the Stairs. Made with Holara AI.

I start to descend the stairs. As I go down, I think to try and summon KF from high-school. Sure enough, when I get to the bottom of the stairs, I see her but her face is obscured. The bottom of the stairs reminds me of the bottom of the wells from the Forest Temple in The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. KF walks by me quickly and she seems upset about something so I don't bother her. I try to project comfort and warmness her way and say:

"Hey K, I'm going exploring, do you want to come with?" I ask.

I don't get a reply, but she does stop and turn, and then turned back and walked away. I decide to move on.

I find some more stairs going up at the end of the sewer tunnel. There is a great big door. I think:

"Ah! I can use this to get to that elven forest I've been trying to get to!"

Which actually is one of my goals and has been for some time now. Really great memories of waking life in this dream. I focus on what I want the elven forest to look like (tall grey trees as far as the eye can see, fog) and open the door.

Sunny neighborhood cul-de-sac. Nope. Not what I want. I close the door and try again.

Again with the neighborhood. Come on man...I try one more time.

Still the neighborhood. Well, damn it. I guess we're going to the neighborhood. I step out of the sewer door and into the neighborhood. There actually is a grassy knoll with the great big door leading into a sewer behind me, so I give my brain consistency points for that one. Maybe that's why it wouldn't give me the elven forest, because it couldn't find a way to drop a sewer into it.

I'm walking up to the circular end street of the homes and enjoying the sun. I have another blackout-recovery episode and save the dream. Maybe I am getting close to waking. I look around and find no DCs or areas of interest. I decide to fly. I put my arms out in front of me Superman-style and takeoff. The feeling of flight doesn't feel as robust as it normally does. More like a light pickup on the wind. The dream starts to fade shortly after I am in the air, and I don't save it this time.

Pixar VR Concert
I'm standing in a central plaza. It makes me think of the Nintendo Wii U game Nintendo Land. It's all in virtual reality which is pretty darn cool. There are a bunch of concerts going on, maybe six that you can walk to. Each has an assortment of characters from famous franchises from Pixar or Disney or whatever. I can't remember specifics except for Mr. Hippo from Five Nights at Freddy's. Obviously he must be the main attraction here because his monologues are bomb as fuck. Some time later there is a tank of water and I'm helping clean it up. One of the characters is awkwardly making a pass at me but I don't recall details.

Notes
All things accounted for, I'm pretty happy with this night of dreaming. I interacted with multiple dream characters, successfully saved the dream from fading several times, summoned a DC, had some great recall for goals, and performed a teleport (although it didn't take me where I wanted, that's still progress). That also makes 5 uses of the Yuschak Primary Trigger, after which the author suggests that the reader has enough experience to try out other supplements. I'm not sure I will, but it is something to consider.

Conditions
2 drinks of alcohol
No workout, unhealthy dinner
5hr45m/10m WBTB
5th Yuschak Primary Trigger Attempt (8Mg Galantamine, 250Mg Choline Bitartrate)