Ellipsis' Dream Journal

Okay this first post will be updated periodically so I can keep track of current dream trends, the most prominent dream signs I've seen lately, and reminders to myself.

Current Dream Signs
Driving
Bathrooms
Waiting for a bus/running late
Wolves/animals
Transformations
See people I haven't seen for years
Running (usually slowly)
Flying
Fighting/seeing battles or warriors

Common Dream Emotions
Anxiety
Frustration
Nonchalance in the face of absurdity

Current Dream Goals
[√]Resolve to remember 5-7 dreams each week
[√]Resolve to have one lucid dream before August 27th
[ ]Resolve to perform 22 reality checks each dau
[ ]Resolve to have two lucid dreams before August 27th

First Lucid Dream in 5 Years- July 25, 2008

Wow finally broke my dry spell. I woke up this morning and tried a variety of MILD type techniques. Eventually I just fell asleep and about halfway through an already oddly vivid dream, I suddenly achieved lucidity.

I wake up in my bed [in the dream] to find my brother standing beside me, trying to wake me. More than that, he seems to know I am trying to induce a lucid dream, because he is playing jokes on my with a CD player set beside the bed (changing music, setting off alarms, and so forth). I notice he has really bad acne and he starts complaining about it. He says "And look at this one!" pointing out a very disgusting and red pimple on the side of his face. I tell him to just pop it, but get out of bed anyway to get him some medication from my medicine cabinet.

I end up downstairs in my house, but the house is almost reversed in a way. My mom is sitting in the kitchen and I come down saying slowly, "Didn't the kitchen used to be at the back of the house?" She explains that we sold our house and bought the exact same model of it, only in mirror image. The countertops are immaculate (that alone should have been a dream sign given the state of our counters!) and I see a note that a cleaning lady is coming today. We decide to go out so as not to get in her way.

We're out driving through a breathtakingly beautiful field of purple irises and other violet, white, and blue flowers. The vegetation is so thick that it looks like a painting rather than a real landscape. In the backseat, my brother is talking about taking opera lessons before school starts for him in the autumn. Though I'm paying more attention to the landscape, I offhandedly ask what his range is. He sings a few notes and I conclude he must be a tenor.

Suddenly the car veers off and we end up sailing over the top of a lake. I realize it is not a car, but a hovercraft of sorts that we're in, and I am the one driving it! I yell, "I didn't realize I was driving!" And grab a steering bar with both hands, attempting to veer it back into the field.

Suddenly, we launch over a cliff and are propelled into the sky. As we leave the ground, I think, "What was it about dreams? OH yeah, this is one!"

I'm instantly lucid! However, as I gain lucidity, the hovercraft/flying device begins to plummet to the ground. I repeat over and over,"I can fly I can fly I can fly!" Just before it crashes into the landscape, it pulls up sharply, and rises into the sky. I jump out (or the craft simply vanishes) and fly through the air. The landscape below is beautiful and incredibly colorful. I sweep down along a mountain steppe, seeing all the different towns and roads from afar, then quite close. I skim all the way down along the ground, and see cartoonish, brilliantly colored drawings etched into the earth.

I land at some point and end up inside a strange mayan temple-like place. It seems like the place is more an amusement park replica than an actual pyramid. I go within and follow down a set of stairs. Set in a recess in the wall is a stone skull that floats, shoot some sort of projectiles at me. I dive behind a pillar and jump out quickly to launch fireballs at it from my fists. As much as I focus on the fire, I can't seem to make it bigger or last longer. The skull then begins firing greenish lasers, but then vanishes.

I go to leave but on the steps, I decide to try shooting fire out from my feet to propel myself up the stairs. It doesn't seem to work and I fall down onto my hands and knees on the steps. I walk to the top and stand there, wondering what else I can do in this rather limited environment. I'm overcome with elation simply at the fact that I have gone lucid, and I turn to hug one of the stone walls as if to thank the dream. I'm about to change the location when I feel the urge to breath deeply or sigh.

I do so, and am instantly awake in bed, having actually breathed with my physical body. I guess I was sleeping on my face or something. So the question remains, better to have remained lucid at the risk of choking on my pillow? :P

The entire thing probably lasted 3-5 minutes at most. I wanted to attempt chaining it, but I couldn't lie still because of my awkward position (my arms were falling asleep since I tend to sleep with my arms under the pillow). I decided to be grateful that I'd had one and get up to record it.

I've not yet had any LDs to add. However, I resolve now to reinitiate my quest for lucidity and become serious again about examining the state of reality around me and understanding both the waking and dreaming state. I resolve to do as close to 22 activity checks per day as I can manage. I resolve to remember my intent to attempt DEILD and WILDs each time I wake up at night after a dream period. I resolve to recognize that I am dreaming and test my state when I am asleep.

Current Goal:
-Have one LD before November 30th
-Perform 22 or more activity checks daily
-Check my state when seeing friends, when in a bathroom, or when noticing anything odd or novel