09/06/2011 - "Almost Reached the Academy Again...Almost" (Dream Chain)

[Oneironaut Zero]

09/06/2011 Dream 1-A "Almost Reached the Academy Again...Almost" I was at some fancy dinner party, in a large, extremely luxurious hotel or something. The first thing I actually remember is walking through a large lobby area, and realizing that I was dreaming. I was walking through this dimly lit room, behind 2 or 3 guys. I believe they were friends of mine, but I can't really remember. However, I do recall expressing to them that I was dreaming, and requesting for them to remind me later, if I forget. (I figured it was worth a shot.) That was the last time I saw them in the dream, though, I believe. Walking up a flight of stairs, I took notice of all of the DC's milling about. Everyone was dressed up nicely, but I can't remember what I was wearing, myself. I passed by this one, Latin-looking girl in a killer gray dress, and we exchanged a quick glance. Moving on, I passed a table full of women who were having a conversation with each other, and I reached out to the nearest one, playfully grabbing her ass. She looked back as I walked on, and gave me a smile. When I turned away from her, to look where I was going, there was another beautiful girl standing in the doorway of a dark room, in front of me. She was petite and blonde, and also dressed very nicely. I'd remembered my intention to search for the Dream World Academy, and I wasn't really trying to get caught up in dream sex, so I simply asked the girl if she would show me to the nearest portal that could take me to the Academy. She agreed, and brought me into the darkened hotel room. I followed her into the bathroom, and she pulled back the shower curtain, motioning for me to step inside. A little confused, I stepped into the shower, expecting to be somehow teleported to the Academy. Instead, though, the girl stepped in behind me. Before I knew it, we were making out in the shower with the water off, and our clothes still on. The dream seemed to unravel, after this. Dream 1-B (Dream Chain / False Awakening) I 'woke up' in a dark room. For a moment, I though I was back at home but, after looking around a bit, I noticed that the room was unfamiliar to me. I could see what looked like an old dresser and TV in the darkness, and a curtain-less window sat nearby. Trying to remember how I might have gotten into this room, I recalled that I had been dreaming, and just woke up here. I recognized this to be a false awakening, got up and walked to the window. It was night out, and I seemed to still be in the hotel, judging by the look of things, outside. The thought came back to me, that I had wanted to find the Academy, so I decided to do some searching on my own. Placing my palms to the glass, I pushed forward and phased through it, stepping out onto the high ledge. From there, I hovered up to the roof, which was high enough that I could just about see above all the other buildings in the area. I looked out over the horizon, to see if anything stood out as an obvious sign that there was an Academy nearby, but didn't really see anything note-worthy. Then, I looked down to the ground, far below. I could see a small puddle/pond of water, positioned just beneath me, and remembered that these were told (in a previous dream) to be portals. Leaning forward from the rooftop, I dropped off of the ledge, and fell toward the tiny pond. During the fall, I turned myself around so that I was falling backward. Anticipating on hitting the water, I was surprised when I actually fell into what seemed more like a rabbit hole than a water hole. I was still in free-fall; dropping like a stone into the narrow tunnel, to the point where I could feel my stomach begin to turn. A little uneasy with the unexpectedness of falling backward into this empty hole, I turned back around to fall chest-first. Suddenly, I found that I wasn't falling through a dark pit anymore. Upon the simple act of my turning over, the pit had completely disappeared, and I was now free-falling through the sky, as if I had just been thrown out of an airplane. It was now daytime. Below me, all I could see was blue ocean, for countless miles in every direction, and I was falling toward it fast. Below me, all I could see was ocean, for countless miles in every direction, and I was falling toward it fast. A single stretch of island came into view. Even from the aerial view I had, I could tell that it was the Academy! It almost looked like a castle, and the grounds took up the tiny patch of land, leaving really nothing beyond the paved walkways that stretched right out to the docks and into the ocean. The closer I got to the water, though, the more I could see that there was some sort of chaos going on. Boats became visible in the waters blow, and jets buzzed in the air around me. I had forgotten all about trying to fly, and just continued my free-fall, which ended up dropping me out into the open water, maybe a couple miles from the docks. After splashing down in the ocean, I lifted my head above the surface and took a look around. I had apparently fallen directly into an aquatic war zone. What - from above - just looked like a fray of vehicles scurrying around the air and sea, turned out to be a full-on battle. (This was reminiscent of the last time I went searching for the Academy, and saw that the area was occupied by two opposing military forces. It seems my subconscious decided to throw them back in the mix.) Speed boats with machine guns were battling jets. Scuba divers were waging attacks on the boats. The water - which looked pretty placid, from the air - was now turbulent with the mayhem that was going on around me. I didn't want to deal with this, though. I just wanted to get to the damn Academy. Deciding not to waste any time with this battle, I levitated myself out of the water and bolted toward the shore, flying over the water like a missile and dodging all of the combatants in my way - just trying my damndest to finally get a chance to explore the actual academy, itself. Unfortunately, I woke up just before reaching dry land.

[Arch]

Gutted on waking up, I'm surprised and impressed on how you managed to stay in the dream after falling backwards, that would probably have woken me up. Oh and yeah, girls always seem to wake me up even if I'm trying to avoid them. Few questions O, what methods do you use in the day, are you extra aware for the most part, do you mantra? RC? ect? Do you believe experiencing realising you're dreaming itself help you realise you are dreaming in the future. (experience). Great dream, great control, I went to the academy once in a non lucid, for me it was a Japanese styled building.

[Oneironaut Zero]

Thanks, Arch! I don't even know what compelled me to turn around, while falling. I don't recall doing many flat, backward high falls while lucid, besides this one, but I could see how it could wake people up. It's a strange, kind of creepy feeling. Lol. And when I didn't hit water, but actually fell into a 'tunnel', that's when it got so intense that I got that queasy feeling. I'm usually pretty aware, in the daytime. My only constant method is to periodically check my state - either at different intervals throughout the day, or whenever something 'strange' happens. Sometimes, just at random (say, I'll be walking through the parking lot at work), I'll just look around me and test my state. I'll note how vivid/solid things are (or aren't), try to levitate things with my mind, or look at any surrounding words or numbers and see if they change, when I look back at them. Every now and then, I'll do a finger through palm test, or something like that, but not very often. And I definitely believe that getting familiar with the dream state makes it more likely for you to become lucid. Outside of actually noticing things that are strange in a dream, there is sometimes just that 'feeling', that you're not in the waking world. Sometimes it's about how things appear (hazy, sometimes a little dulled at first), and sometimes you just all of a sudden realize; "wait...where am I, and how the fuck did I get here?" (ala Inception). It's not something you can always feel, if you're too involved in the dream to notice, but sometimes you just kinda know "this feels like a dream." [Edit] Also, I believe this was the result of a WBTB. I didn't write it down in my notes, though, so I'm not exactly sure. But most of my recent lucids have been WBTB.

[Arch]

Thanks, Arch! I don't even know what compelled me to turn around, while falling. I don't recall doing many flat, backward high falls while lucid, besides this one, but I could see how it could wake people up. It's a strange, kind of creepy feeling. Lol. And when I didn't hit water, but actually fell into a 'tunnel', that's when it got so intense that I got that queasy feeling. I'm usually pretty aware, in the daytime. My only constant method is to periodically check my state - either at different intervals throughout the day, or whenever something 'strange' happens. Sometimes, just at random (say, I'll be walking through the parking lot at work), I'll just look around me and test my state. I'll note how vivid/solid things are (or aren't), try to levitate things with my mind, or look at any surrounding words or numbers and see if they change, when I look back at them. Every now and then, I'll do a finger through palm test, or something like that, but not very often. And I definitely believe that getting familiar with the dream state makes it more likely for you to become lucid. Outside of actually noticing things that are strange in a dream, there is sometimes just that 'feeling', that you're not in the waking world. Sometimes it's about how things appear (hazy, sometimes a little dulled at first), and sometimes you just all of a sudden realize; "wait...where am I, and how the fuck did I get here?" (ala Inception). It's not something you can always feel, if you're too involved in the dream to notice, but sometimes you just kinda know "this feels like a dream." [Edit] Also, I believe this was the result of a WBTB. I didn't write it down in my notes, though, so I'm not exactly sure. But most of my recent lucids have been WBTB. Awesome, yeah I think getting to know it is a big part. I thought it might have been wake back to bed, I think people associate WBTB with WILDs too much, and do not realise how helpful they are when trying to DILD/MILD.