non-lucid

#952:
Date: July 19th, 2010
Length: 3 minutes

I'm on the lawn in front of some large mansion, which is apparently where I'm staying with my family. The mansion has taken fire, and I've apparently just run out to safety. I just stand there for a while, not really doing anything.

The dream seems to flash forward here, and I find myself back in high school, on a regular day of class. I have apparently just found out that my dad and brother died in the fire. Shocked and sobbing, I'm escorted to some history class by a couple of people (in suits?). In there, the teacher offers her condolences, but tells me I'll still have to do my presentation today.

I sit down, still in tears, sort of trying to think about what I'm going to say during my presentation, but unable to really focus. No one around me seems to know what happened, and a girl in front of me turns around and asks. I explain, and she seems really sorry for me. She puts a hand on my shoulder and tries to comfort me. I tell her that this whole story seems a bit strange to me, and that I can feel that something isn't right but can't quite figure it out. We discuss what I can remember from the fire, and I tell her that the strangest thing in all of this is that the place that burned down isn't even where we actually live. I keep thinking about this, and realize that one explanation would be that this is a dream. On the off chance that it is, I decide to try to wake myself up. I close my eyes forcefully, focus, and then reopen them quickly -- in real life.




#953:
Date: July 19th, 2010
Length: 2 minutes

I'm in some kind of a desert-like area, in a large network of canyons where a soccer game is apparently being played. I'm some distance away, near some guy I used to know and a couch with two video game controllers on it. Apparently I can control one of the players using the controllers, or just walk up to the game and play in it myself. I chat with the guy for a while, and I think he picks up one controller. I think I ended up walking towards the "field", and I noticed several of the players were professionals (I recall seeing Puyol). One side was basically getting destroyed, with the ball constantly near their goal.

#950:
Date: July 17th, 2010
Length: 4 minutes

The world is coming to an end, apparently. I'm outside with a couple people (the precise location is actually on a highway I've been on IRL), one of which is my mom, and we're planning an escape to some safe place. It seems that most people haven't realized that a series of huge disasters is about to occur. I look up at the sky, and see a large storm brewing, which will apparently destroy everything (there might also have been an earthquake coming, too).

We've apparently secured a plane, and so we're gathering our stuff as quickly as we can so we can leave. At some point, my mom realizes she forgot something that I apparently wanted, and she seems very sad about it (I think she even cried). I feel really sorry for her, and tell her it's really not that important to me. Eventually, someone (the "leader" of our group of people) announces that we need to leave very soon, and so to finish what we're doing.

We end up on some airstrip, at night, in the pouring rain. The plane has already begun firing up its engines, and so we have to quickly get on. I think the plane was already moving or something, so it was hard to move around. I quickly got on and got strapped in, expecting a rough ride. After that, I don't recall much, except some instants of extreme turbulence, and thinking to myself that I should have just stayed on the ground and died there, instead of dying in a plane crash that was seeming more and more likely.



#951:
Date: July 17th, 2010
Length: 2 minutes

This was kind of a weird dream. I start out in some kind of underground place that looks like a mix of a small airport, a construction zone, and a sewer system. I'm there with Bruce Willis, and a girl who is supposed to be his daughter. We're apparently trying to escape this class and get back to the surface. We climb a bunch of ladders and walk across several metal walkways, and get to some place where we set down a few backpacks that I guess we were carrying this whole time.

We wait around for a bit, then start noticing something moving in one of the backpacks. We find that really strange, and I reach for the bag and try to feel what's inside. As I set my hand on the backpack, I feel a large, spherical creature, and it starts moving frantically. I recoil, and we carefully open the bag. The creature quickly jumps out -- it's a kind of giant, smooth hairball, and we're all freaked out by it. It's pretty aggressive, but we back off and it eventually goes away. Bruce Willis explains something weird about how it was created by hair that fell in the backpack and rotted.

Eventually, we manage to find our way back to the surface. I walk outside, alone now. There isn't much around, except a dirt road, which I follow. At this point, I somehow realize (I think by looking at an advertising panel?) that all this was actually a commercial for Toyota. I'm a bit angry about this, and just keep walking down the road.



The other day I also had a sort of semi-lucid dream. All I can really remember from it is some sex, and going up to a counter, and asking someone for "polymorph potions," which they gave to me. The liquid was a sort of silvery color.

Bunch of short dreams:



#946:
Date: July 12th, 2010
Length: 2 minutes

I was at my old school, and it was lunch time. I had planned to eat with a friend, and sat down at a table waiting for him, but he kept stalling. I could see him walking around, not really sure what he was doing. Eventually I tried to talk to him, but he wasn't really making much sense. I ended up just sitting down alone and eating.



#947:
Date: July 12th, 2010
Length: 5 minutes

Mostly fragments of a dream based on the great movie Oldboy. I recall at one point being inside some kind of bar in a skyscraper, and seeing someone in a mirror's reflection and knowing he was after me. I tried to find him, but all around me were more mirrors, and I could only see his reflection. The dream involved some kind of mystery with someone (me?) getting kidnapped. At some point I was walking in a desert, and fought off a bunch of humanoid creatures (demons?). After what was apparently a long journey, I found myself in a movie theater, watching a movie that was supposed to reveal the truth about why all this had happened. I don't remember much from it. A few other people were there, including the person behind all this. I ended up just walking out into the street, and talking with some girl who knew a friend of mine.


#948:
Date: July 13th, 2010
Length: 3 minutes
I'm testing some kind of video game, though I'm "in" it, not playing it. There are these very fast, easy to maneuver, small aircraft that look kind of like airspeeders from Star Wars. I pilot one (the dream goes into third person view of the aircraft during this). Soon enough, more people arrive and start testing out the ships as well. Eventually, it seems that everything shifts to "real life" (although my surroundings don't really change, except that there are a couple more buildings around). I hijack a nearby aircraft, and end up in a dogfight against a few others. I remember shooting one down, and then leaving the area.



#949:
Date: July 14th, 2010
Length: 3 minutes

Kind of a strange dream. I was in my room, and apparently discovered a scroll that, when read, allowed you to see or transport to "a hidden dimension." For some reason I ended up with Aquanina (don't know why in particular) on the phone, and she was apparently in this scroll, and if I read it allowed, it would supposedly affect both of us. I remember reading the scroll for a long time, but then I think it turned more into a kind of lucid dream attempt. I don't recall actually seeing anything different.

Ugh, things have been a bit hectic lately and recall has suffered. Here's some stuff though.


#945:
Date: July 11th, 2010
Length: 5 minutes

I'm at a kind of (middle?) school, in chemistry class. I think a few people here are some friends. Everyone, including myself, is significantly younger than in real life, however. After a while, the class ends, and everyone rushes to finish some kind of experiment we had to do. People eventually leave the class, and I'm one of the last people to get out, worried that I'll be late for my next class.

I walk through some corridors, and it becomes apparent that this school is under military control/surveillance. I think it might have been on some foreign planet (the sky and outside looked unusual). I eventually get to some kind of military checkpoint, and I show some kind of paper to a guy at a desk, hoping that he will tell me where to go to find my next class. He does, and I start heading there, when suddenly there's an uproar.

A kind of alert is sounded, and several men with guns run outside. It seems that the kids from my chemistry class have gone insane and taken up arms. They shoot at the soldiers who went outside, and kill them all, then disappear. Inside the school, I volunteer myself to go find out what happened to the kids that has made them go insane.

I walk outside, and after a journey that I don't remember, I end up in some kind of swamp/jungle, where I find a few of the kids. They don't seem quite normal, but they're not hostile either. After talking for a while with them, they offer me some kind of large, strange fruit that they are all eating. I eat some of it, and a strange yellow liquid spews out. All the kids seem to be addicted to this fruit and the liquid it contains. I realize that the fruit must contain something that is making them go insane, and try to prove it to them.

This part is a bit strange -- I reach into my throat somehow, and cough up what I just ate. It now looks dark purple, and I try to explain to everyone that this is the substance that is corrupting them and messing with their minds. I think they believe me, but I don't recall much after that.




A few fragments besides that:

- A dream where I walked like half an hour to get to a place where I was going to run. I had to cross a long metal bridge with holes in it (I was worried of falling through into the water below). I also ended up talking with my parents, who said they wanted a new child (a girl, iirc).

- A dream where I was in some kind of hell/purgatory. There was a small, creepy house that I went into, and in which there was a room with some kind of monster and a giant spider, which I killed using a golden gun.

#944:
Date: July 6th, 2010
Length: 6 minutes

I'm not sure exactly why, but I enjoyed this dream a lot.


<Interesting to note -- in this dream, I "feel" like I'm a few years older, especially near the end, when the plot doesn't really make sense if I'm not older than I am>

The first thing I recall is running for my life alongside a couple other people, in an alleyway. Apparently a zombie infection has struck, and we're fleeing to safety. Some of the city has already been devastated. I spot a ladder to my right, and quickly climb up, to the top of some kind of skyscraper (yes, that would be quite the climb, but I don't think I actually experienced the climb). I reach the rooftop, and I think I'm alone for a while.

My recall is a bit blurry here, but I think I'm concerned that this building might collapse. It has another, slightly smaller building leaning on it. The top part of the leaning building seems to be built out of wood, and the ceiling is mostly broken so that I can see inside. I think there were a few people taking cover in there. I jump into there, and then get inside an elevator, trying to get to the rooftop of another building. The elevator shaft is diagonal rather than vertical, and I'm hoping that nothing is too damaged.

I press the button that will take me to the rooftop. After a long while, I'm still not there, and start wondering if I'll be stuck here and die like this, cursing myself for taking a stupid risk. Thankfully, though, the elevator doors open after a while and I find myself on a large, open rooftop, with a couple swimming pools on it. There are other people there, too. I settle near a pool at one edge of the roof, and set down a bag that I'm carrying. After a few moments, zombies start swarming the roof, having apparently climbed up.

Total chaos ensues. Most of the people don't seem to have weapons and get devoured. Armed with a shotgun and pistol, I manage to hold off the zombies that head towards me. In front of me, near another pool, I see a mother trying to protect her two children, a little boy and girl. The mother dies somehow (I don't actually recall seeing her die), but I see the children still alive, and quickly motion to them to come to me. They do so, and for a while I keep the zombies at bay, but soon they begin gaining ground and things are getting desperate.

At this point, I somehow freeze time. The zombies all stop instantly, though I think the children are not completely frozen. I start trying to figure out if there's a way we can escape from this situation. At this point I realize that my shotgun, my best weapon, is missing. I check in my bag, but don't find it. I wonder if I dropped it in the pool or something, but I can't see it. I ask the little girl (I think through telepathy?) if they have anything that might be of use, and she says they have a shotgun. I tell her that's good news, and I take a look at the weapon. It looks like an oval-shaped, purple alarm clock with several holes in it -- nothing like a gun, but apparently it is.

Before I can do anything else, a small group of people in suits arrive. It seems that time is not stopped anymore, but the zombies are just standing still. One of the people wearing a suit comes up to me, and he explains that the zombies are actually created and controlled by them. He offers me some kind of shady deal for my life, and I refuse. We end up in a close-quarters hand-to-hand battle, and I kill him. I don't recall this very well, but I think I kill several more of the people in suits, who each come up to me individually and try to bargain.

At some point, I agree to a deal, I think with a blonde-haired woman. I don't think she's part of the same organization as the others were, however. Still, I'm worried that she will try to double-cross me, but I figure I don't have much choice. The deal was basically this: I join them, and they will keep the children (and, technically, me) safe. Soon enough, I find myself with the children in a sort of limousine. Also there is a vaguely asian-looking woman with dark, long hair. She seems to be my age (that is, my age irl, 19), but in the dream I am apparently significantly older than her. She is in charge, it seems.

The limo stops, and we get out. We're in some kind of forest-like area, and we approach a lone building, some kind of outpost. There was something we had to watch out for here, but I don't recall if it was mines or zombies. Anyways, we go inside, and I'm greeted pretty warmly by a few people. Apparently these are the "good guys," a group of human survivors trying to rebuild. I chat with them for a while, and they show me my assigned bed, and those for the children.

After that, we start talking about what the group does. It seems that most of the world, at least in this area, has been devastated. Also, this whole disaster apparently started many years ago, so much so that among all these people, I'm the only one who was alive, or at least old enough to remember, in the world before the disaster. As such, I'm treated with a kind of marvel by the others, who are very curious about how things used to be. Apparently, a lot of the old technology has been damaged, and knowledge about how it works has also faded. The girl from the limo explains that teams of a few people are sent out each day to try to scavenge what they can, especially weapons (this brings to mind a sort of "vision" of a futuristic kind of gun which I guess we had "back then") to use against the zombies.

The girl from the limo then starts asking me if I know any programming languages. I tell her I know a few, and then we get into a long conversation about programming languages, and she's fascinated as I talk about some that she's never heard. Apparently this kind of knowledge will be of much use to them. During the conversation, completely seriously, I ask her if she knows what the Internet is/was, and she says she's heard of it but can't imagine it. We keep talking for a while, and apparently my duties will revolve around helping people rediscover/use technology. The dream ended with me feeling happy at how everything turned out.

#943:
Date: July 5th, 2010
Length: 3 minutes

I'm with my family, on a trip, aboard a sort of hybrid tour bus / buggy, with some hispanic guy as the driver. Apparently we're being driven to wherever we're staying (I'm not sure what country this is supposed to be in). After a while, we end up in some kind of off-road area with uneven terrain. The bus reaches a sharp sort of incline, and starts tilting massively. After a few seconds, the bus tips over entirely, and we go barreling down a hill. I try to protect myself as best I can as I get thrown around, but thankfully the bus seems almost designed for such situations and absorbs the shocks fairly well. Eventually, we stop rolling, and everyone is alright.

A while later, we're still on the bus, and see a huge ravine ahead of us. The driver makes some kind of weird turn, but messes up and we start falling. We crash on a sort of small chunk of land a couple feet below, where dozens more cars are stacked up, indicating that many people have crashed here before. Thankfully we stop just before the bus can fall into the ravine. We quickly get out through an emergency exit, afraid that the bus will lose its balance and fall. I think my dad yells at the driver for his performance so far. After that, the dream is a bit strange. My surroundings sort of morph into a hotel room, and I recall trying to retrieve our luggage from the bus.



I also had some dream where I was in an elevator that went EXTREMELY fast up and down a 71-story building, and I was scared that it would break.

MILD not nearly as successful last night; no biggie.

#942:
Date: July 3rd, 2010
Length: 3 minutes

This dream was pretty strange and I'm having some trouble remembering it. Basically it was some kind of story and/or game that began in hell. At some points I think I was some woman, at others I was satan. Anyways, I started in a kind of a giant cave with an extremely high ceiling, and I saw someone fly towards the top of it and out through an opening. I was supposed to follow, but unable to fly myself. I then discovered I could someone portals, and so I used those to transport myself to the opening. I ended up on some kind of giant floating ship, that was being readied.

I was apparently the captain of the ship and its army, and so I began preparations to set out. I checked out some of the soldiers -- they were all ghosts, but only in appearance -- they all could normally interact with the physical world. Eventually I wanted to start heading out, but something was wrong with the ship, and I spent the rest of the dream trying to fix it.

Ah, feeling quite happy. Last night, after reading up on MILD (including my own previous experiences with it) and "rehearsing" reality checking to things like darkness and water, I decided to try MILD again. I went to bed, reciting "I will have a memorable, vivid and recalled lucid dream tonight." I tried to really take it slow and focus on every word's meaning, visualizing when I could. As I started to fall asleep, it became harder to concentrate on visualizing and meaning, so I just tried to keep repeating the mantra as much as possible. It took me a good while to fall asleep, but as far as I can tell I stuck with it basically until I was sleeping. And it paid off -- 4 dreams recalled (though good recall wasn't really the focus, but I'll take it!), one of which was lucid (not all that memorable, but still) and another of which was close / semi-lucid. Here they are.

#938:
Date: July 2nd, 2010
Length: 4 minutes

I'm in some kind of small city. I step out from the street into some kind of small store, accompanied by some guy I apparently know. For a long time I look around, unsure of what to buy, if anything. The guy ends up talking with the cashier, a girl that he knows. I think he buys a few things. Meanwhile, I start checking out an aisle that has a bunch of books/comics.

After a while I still haven't made up my mind about what to buy, and the others start making fun of me for it. I just kind of laugh and go along with it. The dream is a bit blurry here -- I recall something about stick figures: either one of the comics involved stick figures, or the guy and girl themselves turned into stick figures, I don't quite recall. Regardless, it somehow dawns on me that I am dreaming.

Excited, I step out into the street, and as I walk I try to stabilize everything. I then take flight, into a kind of suburb. After a while I land, and for some reason my surroundings seem extremely familiar, like I've been here before, but I don't think I have. I see two girls nearby, and I think I ended up kissing one of them. Shortly after that my surroundings become quite foggy and strange.

In front and to my right, there's a particularly thick patch of fog I can't see through, and I decide to try diving through and to see where I'll end up. I do so, and the dream sort of goes nuts -- my surroundings turn all dark, and my vision goes to third person for a moment, then my entire field of vision turns upside down and I see myself falling. I'm not positive about how this ended, but as far as I can tell/remember I had sort of a false awakening where some voice was trying to get me to wake up, and after that I actually did wake up in real life.




#939:
Date: July 2nd, 2010
Length: 3 minutes

I'm participating in this sort of worldwide game/contest (at times it feels like a video game, not a "real" thing), that involves accumulating treasure in a very short time, around three minutes I think. At first I see a sort of world map, and several dots indicate places where I can search for treasure. I pick one, and end up in front of some gigantic fish. It goes towards me and eats me whole.

I find myself inside the fish, wondering where I was supposed to find treasure here. After a few moments though, I realize that what the fish is eating is heading towards me, and see that it's treasure -- some kind of golden artifact is the first thing I spot. Instead of staying inside though, I decide to escape the fish. I take out a large knife I happen to have on me, and start slicing away at the "walls" around me. Eventually the fish dies, and I crawl out into some cave whose floor is covered in water.

I take a look at the fish, and realize that it has a bunch of teeth that are actually precious gems. I take my knife and start extracting them (there are about 10). After a few moments, my mom randomly arrives, and she tells me time is running out and I need to quickly grab all the gems I can and leave the cave because a rescue squad is waiting for me outside. I quickly remove the rest of the teeth/gems and start heading out.



#940:
Date: July 2nd, 2010
Length: 5 minutes

It's late afternoon on a sunny day, and it seems I'm trying to walk home. However, I'm in some place that I don't know. The terrain is very open, green, and uneven. I find some old woman, who decides to serve as my guide and help me find my way home. I follow her all the way to some isolated stretch of land very close to a large body of water, which I apparently need to get to the other side of. For a moment, I take a look around. The water is a beautiful blue, and it has suddenly become extremely windy. I realize that I'm going to have to backtrack and walk around the body of water.

I thank the old woman for her help, and tell her I'll find my way from here, not wanting to be slowed down by her and having a rough idea of where I'm headed. As I make my way back, I encounter some sort of large wooden structure with a bunch of ramps on it, serving as a kind of bridge. However, as I start walking on it, it quickly falls apart under my weight. Soon enough, it's entirely broken, and I drop down to the ground, a foot or so below. I realize that this wooden structure was actually part of someone's garden, and perhaps some sort of thing for children to play on that I've now wrecked.

I take a look around. The garden I'm in is part of a very large house, where a party is going on. I quickly walk down some stairs towards the house, and go inside, trying to look like a guest. Once inside, I walk up a large set of stairs, and find myself face to face with the father of the family that lives there. Worried that he'll find out what I did, I try not to look suspicious, and ask him where the bathroom is. I go there, and take a leak. The bathroom door, which I closed, opens for no reason. Shortly after, I see the father just outside the bathroom, and am terrified that he's going to confront me, but he doesn't.

Instead of leaving, I decide to stick around for the party. I go back outside, where there are many people near a large pool, most seated at tables and having discussions. At this point, I seem to realize that this isn't quite real (perhaps the sight of water twice in the dream unconsciously reminded me that it's a potential dream sign of mine). I don't become fully lucid, but get a sense that nothing I do here really matters. With this in mind, I decide to mess around a bit. I randomly sit at some tables and try to barge into the conversations, or act obnoxious/awkward (eg, randomly sit between two people and rest my arms on their shoulders as if we're good friends).

After that, the party seemed to disperse, except for a few guests around a distant table that had tons of food on it. They were standing, having a quiet, sort of suspicious conversation. I ended up going near them, but I don't recall doing anything in particular.




#941:
Date: July 2nd, 2010
Length: 3 minutes

I'm apparently a player for the Golden State Warriors, and we are having some kind of training session in a gymnasium. For reason, Yao Ming is on the team, and he has a broken left arm and is wearing a cast. I don't really recall any other specific players, besides maybe Ellis. The coach organizes a kind of practice game, I think 3on3, one weaker team (mine) against a stronger one (Yao's). I think there were a few people watching us from some windows that gave a view of the street.

We start playing, I think getting pretty handily beaten. We then reach a play where I am defending Yao, and we end up colliding hard, and we both fall to the ground. His broken arm takes a serious hit, and it seems he's badly injured. He gets carried off by medical staff I think, and the training session ends.

#937:
Date: July 1st, 2010
Length: 4 minutes

I'm on some kind of one-day trip to Britain, where I meet up with a friend for dinner. We end up in some kind of restaurant, with a couple of people he apparently knows. For some reason though, I leave the restaurant (with the intention of coming back in a bit), and head to some kind of airport. As I walk, I'm a bit confused as to this whole situation -- I vaguely recall arriving in the country, but seem to have absolute no plan as to how I'm going to get back home, or even where I'm going to sleep this night. I seem to have assumed that my friend would have planned everything out, and so I tell myself that I'll ask him what the plan is when I go back to the restaurant.

First, though, I decide to exchange some of my US dollars for pounds. I go to some sort of change bureau, when I find my grandmother working, for no apparent reason. I go up to her, give her some of my money, and in exchange, instead of money, she gives me large pieces of paper, signed and with some monetary value written on them. I'm slightly suspicious of these, but I take them anyway. Don't recall much after that.




Been thinking a bit about my dream signs lately. From my more recent dreams, a couple ideas have come up:

- Darkness/night seems to quite frequent, maybe 50-60% of my dreams involve it.
- Fear, pain, confusion, or some sort of danger are pretty frequent emotions too.
- I'm very rarely alone in a dream -- usually accompanied by family or friends.
- Water might also be a minor dream sign, it seems to show up occasionally.

Testing this new system.

#935:
Date: June 28th, 2010
Length: 3 minutes

I'm pretty sure something came before this, but the first thing I recall from this dream is being on a kind of beach at night. Two other people were there, one of whom was lying on a long chair, I think near a campfire. Anyways, I got a a bit near the water, just trying to dip my feet in it, but I ended up getting swept outwards by the current. Panicky, I tried swimming back towards the shore, only to get farther away. Thankfully, the two others, seemingly unaffected by the current, came to drag me back ashore.

Day came soon enough, and I ended up on a tennis court near to that beach, playing a game against Yao Ming. After a while, though, I'm really not feeling well. I realize, or am told, that I have some sort of plague, somehow contracted by touching that water earlier. I end up going back to the beach to have it cured, then return to the tennis court.


#936:
Date: June 28th, 2010
Length: 4 minutes

I'm apparently the instructor for some sort of small history class at my university. I sort of accept this as a given, but at the same time feel a bit confused because I don't really know what I should be teaching. My first class comes, and I manage to get through without teaching much of anything because of time for introductions etc. I also notice that I have some Indian guy who is supposed to be my teaching assistant, but he doesn't seem responsive whenever I try to talk to him.

The next class comes, and apparently I'm supposed to talk about some sort of reading everyone had to do, but, not having done it myself, I'm a bit unsure what to say. I end up just sort of wasting time and having people read until the class is over. As far as I recall, the dream ends with me contacting the department and asking them if there is some kind of syllabus I'm supposed to follow for this class. I think they (and I) ended up realizing that I hadn't actually been hired to teach this particular class.