false awakening

Whooooo, another MILD attempt last night. I woke up around 630 AM, stayed up 10 minutes, and the result was a sort of lucid dream about an hour later. The 10 minute thing seems to be working pretty well, but I may need to stay up a little longer or be a bit more active during the 10 minutes, because I still feel like I'm falling asleep almost instantly when I lie down again.

Then, this morning when I got out of bed, at first I didn't remember that many dreams, but I got into a strange half-sleepy mode where I could suddenly remember a LOT of dreams from last night. This happens to me sometimes at night when I'm falling asleep, I'll suddenly start remembering a bunch of old dreams in a chain. Anyways, here they all are!



#1011:
Date: July 13th, 2011
Length: 6 minutes

I began the dream in a sort of grocery store. After a few moments, I was (partially) lucid; I think I did a nose-plug RC. I tried to stabilize everything and get into a clear mindset. I remembered one idea I had to help me focus and become fully conscious: remembering some things I'm doing in the coming week IRL. I only managed to recall two of them before losing attention, and I don't remember exactly what they were. I also switched to thinking in French for a while.

A friend of mine appeared to my left, and showed me a table with a whole bunch of food and stuff, inviting me to dig in. I started with a weird sort of bar of hard candy, but it tasted very strange so I spit it out. I think I had a slice of pizza and just generally pigged out because I knew it didn't matter and it's always interesting to see how things will taste in a dream.

After this, my recall of the dream is blurry for a while, I remember an Asian girl, a large lake that I considered swimming in but eventually decided not to, and some alternation between day and night. Eventually I ended up in a sort of motel room. The dream got pretty strange from there, so I'll pass on writing up the rest.



#1012:
Date: July 13th, 2011
Length: 4 minutes

This whole dream occurred in some kind of large underground mall/subway station. In the dream, I would repeatedly have to run and jump really fast to get from one side of the station to another. There was an elevator on both ends of the mall that I would go into. I would sprint, slide along rails and doing a whole bunch of acrobatic stuff I probably couldn't pull off in real life.

It was all pretty fun, but I was also scared because I was being chased (by police and other characters), so basically running for my life. Sometimes there was this sort of witch/hag dressed all in black after me. She would occasionally catch up with me and grab me. She had a kind of magical touch and whenever I came into contact with her it was like I was being electrocuted -- I could barely move and it was quite painful. Thankfully, I would get rescued by a mysterious woman who would fight off the hag whenever this happened, buying just enough time for me to run to the escape elevator, which took me back to the start.


Once, while in the elevator I saw a tiny inscription near the buttons, that said something about how this "game" worked: every 3 rounds there would be a more difficult, advanced round (which is where the hag usually showed up). Apparently after 3 advanced rounds it would all be finished. On the last run that I remember, near the start I was approached by a well-dressed Asian man. He apparently worked for the evil corporation that was after me, but had decided to betray them. He led me into a secret area of the mall, and I don't remember what he showed me there.


#1013:
Date: July 13th, 2011
Length: 3 minutes

I was in a city, though at times I was semi-aware of it all being part of a video game. I knew there was some sort of fixed plot I was to follow, somehow related to the movie the Sorcerer's Apprentice (which I haven't seen but whose title I saw the other day). There was a weird tension to the dream, so for a while I was intentionally just walking around doing nothing, kind of afraid of actually starting the plot. I rode on a bus for a while and just looked around, surprised that the city was so big (ie, that the game had such a vast area to explore).

Eventually, I ended up in a dark, creepy bathroom. The stalls were filled with junk, and in one of them I found a really strange pencil. It was somewhat pink and decorated, and it was apparently a wand of great power. I remember taking it, but nothing after that.



And some fragments:

- I was at home, juggling a soccer ball in the back yard. I accidentally kicked it too hard though and it went over the fence. I was about to go get the ball, but the dream ended.

- I was looking on facebook, and I was surprised to see that an old friend was participating in a competition that I'm entering.

- A strange dream where I was exploring what was supposed to be a college campus, but it really just seemed to be some place in the mountains. I think I had a few moments of lucidity, then the rest of the dream just got blurry and weird.

- I was "in" a game similar to minecraft. In front of me was a long bridge, and at the end of the bridge was a giant red sort of laser beam. My friends told me that it was a portal to hell, and that I should just jump into it. When I did, I died and all my stuff dropped down far below. I respawned and tried to go get my stuff, but down where it had fallen was a whole bunch of lava and only a few stepping stones and water. I managed to get down there but struggled to escape and I think I died a few more times.

- A dream where I ended up back at several old places where I supposedly used to live (they were somewhat similar, but none of them actually exist): one was a tiny place with two beds, with another room down the hall for doing things besides sleeping. There was also a depressing 1-room lodge.

So last night I went to sleep with the intent of waking up after every dream period. It didn't work perfectly, I only woke up after a couple, but in the early morning when I woke up I went back to sleep trying to count myself into a dream ("1... I'm dreaming, 2... I'm dreaming" etc), using a snooze on my alarm to regularly wake myself up.

It didn't work directly in the sense that I didn't ever consciously transition to dreaming, but I had a strange sort of lucid dream. Lucidity fluctuated a lot, but it seems like I re-entered the dream twice, but I don't recall if I actually woke up between re-entries or not, so I'll just mark the places I think they happened. Also a lot of other dreams recalled.

#996:
Date: May 30th, 2011
Length: 8 minutes


I began in some kind of house, where I quickly realized I was dreaming. I ended up walking outside, just stabilizing things for a few moments. I wanted to meet someone in particular, so I yelled out her name, hoping that would summon her. Instead, a sort of plot developed where she had been kidnapped and was being held in a building in front of me. My lucidity here was pretty insignificant, but I went inside the building. It was a sort of inn/bar, and I went upstairs to a room.

Now something to understand is that this dream had odd shifts in perspective to a game of Starcraft. My mind was interpreting the concept of lucidity strangely (second time this has happened lately...), as if Starcraft was the real life I would awaken to after this dream. At times, I had flashes where I was seeing my base in a game of Starcraft being attacked, and afraid that this would wake me up. I was asking my allies to help defend me.

Anyways, the person I was looking for was in the room, but my vision shifted to Starcraft mode and saw that she was "infested." I decided to just leave the room and head back outside, having to fight through some people who wanted to stop me.

Back outside, my mind was a bit clearer and I think I was more conscious of my dreaming state. As I walked, the dream began to fade, however. Everything turned dark, but I tried to concentrate on my sense of touch. <Re-entry here?> Eventually, I was back in the dream. I decided to try to use all my senses to stay anchored in the dream, so I walked into a nearby shop and found a bizarre glass container which had some kind of perfume in it. I smelled it and poured some on myself, and also ate two sort of black sort of "rocks" that were inside it. It tasted pretty disgusting, but I kept chewing on it for quite a while, happy about how real it seemed.

At this point my notes read that I was in a room packing up some stuff into my backpack. I vaguely recall this, but I don't know why I was doing it. Anyways, I think the dream faded here again, and I had another re-entry (maybe). I found myself in a wooden shack near a body of water. I looked at myself in a mirror -- I looked basically like myself, though a few features were somewhat distorted.

After a little more stabilization, I stepped outside. Below me was a pretty steep drop down to the water, and in the distance I saw a few hills and islands. I decided to go check out what was over there, though it didn't look like much. I launched myself into the air and flew down towards the water. As I did so, everything felt so real and crisp for a moment that I was completely exhilarated. I tried to calm myself, fearing that this would wake me up. Unfortunately, my flying slowed to almost a dead halt and I had a weird false awakening: the Starcraft game appeared again, with my base being attacked. I typed something like: "can you believe it! I was having a good lucid dream and just then this woke me up!"

I also wrote something in my notes about a checklist, but I don't remember what it had to do with the dream. It had an entry on it that said "pre-fight bosses."



#997:
Date: May 30th, 2011
Length: 4 minutes

I was in a class that was taught by one of my former History professors. It was the first day of this class. For some reason, there were a bunch of pool tables all around the room. I was eager to meet people, and quickly introduced myself to a few. People were told to assemble around the pool tables for some kind of group work. There was some confusion for a moment as some tables got deserted and others overcrowded.

After a while, something odd happened and we were suddenly in the middle of a zombie invasion. I was strangely calm (felt sort of like a game) and ran towards the class entrance. We weren't really in a building or anything -- the room was just sort of merged with outside. It was night time, and I followed a group of people across a small brook and to a sort of checkpoint. Once we made it there we knew we were safe.

Somehow I ended back in the classroom before the zombie thing happened. This time I walked towards the front of the classroom and then beyond it, to a seashore. There were a couple boats there, and I just enjoyed the view for a few moments, when the zombies came again. This time, however, it definitely felt real, and I was scared. I was with a group of journalists and we sprinted towards the same brook we had crossed before. This time, however, there was a problem and we were unable to cross it. Instead we had to take a long bridge to our left.

One by one people fell behind and died, until it was just me and another guy. We ran as fast as we could. For some reason we were suddenly being chased by two cars, and we ducked out of the way just in time before they lost control and crashed horribly, blocking the zombies from catching up with us. I thought I was safe as we stopped a moment to catch our breaths, but then I realized the guy with me had been bitten and was turning into a zombie. He started approaching me aggressively, and I backed off. Soon he was charging me and trying to bite my face off. I fought him off desperately, but I was weaker than him and terrified. I frantically tried to prevent him from biting me while also somehow mentally accessing a menu, trying to stop this "game" (though nonetheless it felt like my life was at stake), and managed to just in time. I don't remember anything after that.


#998:
Date: May 30th, 2011
Length: 3 minutes

Basically just a dream of playing soccer. I was playing defense at first, then switched to attack, then back to defense, then back to attack. It all made sense at the time. After a few uneventful plays, I suddenly started to play much better, just sort of naturally sensing where my teammates were and making good passes. Then I got the ball on our half of the pitch, and suddenly found myself able to dribble their entire team. I fell just short of scoring a goal, tapping the ball a little too far in front of me and losing control at their last line of defense. Still, I was really happy with how I was playing.

We reached a break in play, and some guy kept complaining about how the online system for this soccer league was broken. I asked him why he was so concerned over this when it wasn't even playoff time. He explained that there was a team called "The 300 Spartans" whose name had caused a glitch in the system, somehow resulting in gif images of the car in Back to the Future to be placed above each team's name. This was apparently a very big deal.


- I also had a dream about being in some kind of underground facility, and meeting a ton of people I haven't seen in a really long time.

#967:
Date: (Approx.) October 10th, 2010
Length: 5 minutes

It's another zombie apocalypse. I begin the dream in a large, fortified bus with a bunch of people from my family. We drive down a bunch of roads until we finally reach a coastline. We roll down the beach until we reach a sort of military encampment which is apparently one of the few human settlements remaining. There are many white tents, and as we drive into the camp, people are impressed that we've survived on our own for this long.

We don't stay for more than a few moments though, I think because we realize that whoever is running this camp has some kind of sinister motives. In particular, we notice a sort of symbol on the side of buildings and vehicles that looks like "^^^^", and it makes us very suspicious. We end up in a sort of city, and we stop at what used to be a restaurant, looking for food to scavenge. My recall is a bit blurry at this point. I think we find some guns inside the restaurant, and then someone appears at the door. At first we think it's a zombie, and immediately take aim with our rifles. It turns it's a human though, and we all end up sitting at a table and talking.

Big jump here, I somehow end up in a kind of massive factory, and I am being taken to an audience with the factory's owners (I think the guy from the restaurant told me to go here). After taking an elevator, I enter a large, Japanese-style room, and stand in the middle of the large carpet that spans the room. After a few moments, I am surrounded with a bunch of vaguely human-like cats, who are apparently incredibly wise and think I'm some sort of chosen one. I try to talk with them and explain that I'm nothing special, but they speak a language I don't understand.

For a while I'm really confused, as the cats are all saying many things and I have no idea what is really going on. Eventually, I try to just relax, and I think I slowly start to understand what they are saying, despite not knowing their language. They begin some sort of chanting, and I start floating in the air. I just try to roll with it and wait. Unfortunately, I don't remember much of what happened after that.


#968:
Date: (Approx.) October 8th, 2010
Length: 3 minutes

It's night-time, in some sort of suburban neighborhood. Apparently, I'm "in" a sort of horror movie, and I sort of know it, so while everything feels real, I also have some notion that it isn't, if that makes any sense. Anyways, I'm outside with a group of 4 people, one of whom is Mel Gibson. Armed with a few guns, we're on the hunt for some kind of mysterious animal who has been wreaking havoc (maybe killing people?) in the neighborhood.

After walking around for a while, we spot a dark figure, which we assume is the animal. I think it runs away before we can kill it, and I think to myself that it doesn't look that dangerous. We decide to split up. I end up exploring some sort of log cabin with another person, and it's suddenly morning. The guy with me uses his walkie talkie to contact the others, but eerily, there's no response at all. Everything is suddenly very quiet and tense. There is a knock at the door right in front of us. I feel like something horrific is about to happen, so I get behind the door and try to block my vision, as if trying to ignore the movie I'm in. The guy opens the door, and there is nothing there but books on the floor. If I recall correctly, the books belonged to a little girl who had been killed by the animal, and for some reason it was quite scary that they were suddenly here (who brought them there?).


#968:
Date: (Approx.) October 15th, 2010
Length: 2 minutes

I'm walking around on campus, and I see a girl I haven't seen in years. I follow her, and see her go into a sort of deli I have never been to before. After a few moments I decide to go inside, but go in through the wrong door and end up in a kind of bathroom. There's a bucket with some food in there, so for a moment I wonder if this is the actual deli, but eventually conclude that it isn't. I go in through another door and find myself in a kitchen area, where an employee tells me this isn't the right place to get food. I go back outside and in through another door, which is the right one this time. I ended up admiring some of the delicious things for sale.


A fragment from last night: I was in an elevator with some guy, and suddenly it started shaking fairly violently. It barely reached the floor we were going to, and when it did, the doors opened but the elevator started moving again. We scrambled to get out of the elevator, and did, just in time, before it dropped free-fall to the bottom of the shaft.


Finally, a kind of funny and technically lucid dream from the other day. I woke up in the morning, having overslept already, but fell asleep again. When I did though, I ended up in a dream of getting out of bed, only to see my roommate hiding in a corner getting ready to jump out to scare me or something. I knew my roommate wasn't here IRL though, so I yelled out "NO!!', mad at myself for falling asleep again. I woke myself up and get out of bed, for real this time.