Thread: Zödra: My World, its Rules, Regulations, and Explorations

Thank you Sensei for the very detailed response! I'm going to have to read through that a few times and mull it over some more. I get what you mean about having more options with the codes for skins. But, are you using that to basically randomize the skin on demand, or are you thinking up each skin and assigning it a code? I had assumed you meant the first option, but after re-reading it I'm not sure Interesting idea of barriers also, I don't think I've heard of anyone doing that. So to upscale that room, you could create any rules you want in a particular world. I guess we do that to some extent subconsciously, but to control it you have pretty much created the ultimate virtual sandbox.

Some commentary on the rest, and I apologize if I jump around a bit... I completely agree about "trying without worry of failure". That's something I was starting to realize about lucid dreaming in general. I was getting discouraged by my lack of results recently, and doing my exercises (typically focused on mantras / setting intention as I go to sleep; I'm working on doing better reality checks), the whole time having this attitude of "it's probably not going to work anyway, why do I even still try" etc which would lead to doing fewer exercises. Lately though I've been trying without really worrying about whether it'll work TONIGHT, but affirming to myself that it will anyway while realizing that even if it doesn't happen tonight it'll still help overall. That's sort of where I was with dream incubation / continuation as well: "I almost never have success with this, why do I keep bothering". It's an unhealthy attitude that isn't doing me any favors, and I'm working on that. I didn't have any success for a while when I first started trying to LD, either. Since I started thinking this way, I've had two short and not particularly vivid lucid dreams in about a month, which is the best I've done since about 2 years ago. 2011 and 2013 seem to have been my best times of LD, with 2012 and 2014 up through a couple months ago being times I severely slacked off on anything to do with dreams for various reasons.

On choosing what to dream... Your comment on obsession makes a lot of sense here and fits in with an idea I had. Since my dreams are often peppered with people and concepts from whatever TV show I've been binge watching, video game I've been playing, etc I had the idea to find a wacky surreal game to play before bed. Psychonauts comes to mind. The idea was I'd dream about some surreal concept, and hopefully realize it's a dream because of that. This was to replace my concept of dream incubation. (I realize now they are the same thing but --) my concept of dream incubation was to control the visuals I often have as I'm falling asleep, and sort of step into the scene. The problem with that is the only thing I'd be stepping into at bedtime is at best, a fuzzy N-REM dream. So I think the "obsession" part is the other piece of the puzzle I was missing to bridge that gap. My original idea is probably best suited for some form of WBTB.

I realize a lot of this post is probably more rambling than conversational, but I felt the need to put some of it into words. Thank you again for your thoughts. You've cleared up some things, given me a motivation boost, and given me some ideas to run with.

Anyway, I look forward to reading more about this realm you have created. While I'm here, in your first post you said that your dad's DC "downloaded 75 years of Zödra newspapers into my head." Can you expand on that a little? Did he "create" the history of the place, just like that? Can you recall details of those papers from within the dream, or is it more general than that?

Originally Posted by duke396

Thank you Sensei for the very detailed response! I'm going to have to read through that a few times and mull it over some more. I get what you mean about having more options with the codes for skins. But, are you using that to basically randomize the skin on demand, or are you thinking up each skin and assigning it a code? I had assumed you meant the first option, but after re-reading it I'm not sure Interesting idea of barriers also, I don't think I've heard of anyone doing that. So to upscale that room, you could create any rules you want in a particular world. I guess we do that to some extent subconsciously, but to control it you have pretty much created the ultimate virtual sandbox.

Anyway, I look forward to reading more about this realm you have created. While I'm here, in your first post you said that your dad's DC "downloaded 75 years of Zödra newspapers into my head." Can you expand on that a little? Did he "create" the history of the place, just like that? Can you recall details of those papers from within the dream, or is it more general than that?

I did some with just grabbing, and others with just wanting to assign a code to it. Most of the codes were pretty much just boring changes, while interesting, are kind of not really worth my time. I am probably gonna keep using words and seeing what happens, then if I like it, use the numbers like hotkeys. It changes it only a little, and a little changes in my mind on what I have done and what I want can be done in waking. Yes, I do feel like barriers is a pretty OP ability, really only beaten by my scan version of it. I only use them when I am fighting someone with very good abilities, more power than my own, or when I am struggling with a particular control.

I don't really know on the first question, as far as I know with the creation of dreams like that, it just went through my unconscious and found some of the preset rules I had as well as randomness, unconscious expectations and similar things in order to create it, but in the way that it has been presented, as well as the memories that I have "incubated" and made them stand out more than others, it seems like it has been there since before I was born, or maybe starting when I was born. It was probably just from that dream and my opinion of my dream dad.
I can recall the history, but kind of in a weird way.
Some history and newspaper clippings

On this day, we saw what can only be thought of as a miracle. After an ongoing war was stopped by a single man. Some are calling him a bender of physics or an x-man, but he refuses all of these titles and says that he just found a secret that no one else knows. When asked this secret, he replied "Doesn't matter... it would mean nothing if you learned it from me." Stories from legend seem to pale in comparison, but even though everyone is astonished and the war is over, we don't really know what he did. The fighting stopped, on all of the front lines almost simultaneously and the world leaders decided that the war was over, when asked why they weren't fighting anymore, they both agreed that they didn't think that the reason for fighting a war was worth the cost of lives anymore.

It is like I am reading it while recalling it, does that make sense? Like when you are really into what you are writing and don't have to worry about what you are writing because it is just flowing perfectly. I can still direct it a little though, which is kind of hard to explain.

All of the kings, presidents, and rulers got together and decided to be a one world government, they changed the name of the world Zödra, the world of hope. Those that were in positions of authority still have some honorary titles, but world hunger, poverty, and disease seem to have vanished by our protector. He has asked not to be involved in the whole "ruling" since he finds it boring. His direct quote is "I am the protector, not the leader, if you want my help with anything else, just ask. I am not here to erase all of your problems, but I am here to help with those that are impossible for you to fix on your own."

A few years later.

Men and women run in fear as a small time crook decided to attack his old work. With a wave of his hands, he killed over a hundred people at his old job and then continued to hit the buildings with what he called "freeze attack". By the time our protector showed up, 7 minutes later, he appeared in a flash. Grabbed the crook and disappeared. Many want to know what happened to him, but are afraid to ask if he should exercise judgement on people this way, but no one seems to be complaining.

This is still a paraphrase and a lot of long boring parts are taken out. After others started showing up, he seemed to make something change so that he could pop up instantly in order to stabilize them and make sure that they aren't gonna go mass murder people. Then the witches showed up. They seemed to find a way to change people without telling them that they were dreaming. Discovering ways to make people know or at least be able to tell when people were about to find out the truth. The newspapers didn't know exactly what happened, but went up and down from "He has solved the problem of others discovering the secret", "an alliance that call themselves witches has popped up and seem to be bent on destroying things", "thousands of people disappear over night", "Thousands found.", "over a million found dead, protector caught and questioned, but still not much emotion from the most powerful man in the world", "the world is silent now, witches are still around, but seemingly in check.", "no sign of witches for years, but protector says that they are still there, working more in secret.", "Protector seemingly disappeared, but everything stays wonderful in the world", "Protector shows up for 75 year anniversary of Zödra, seemingly not aged a day.", and that was the newspaper the day that I grabbed it. I found out later that Jason has complete control over the internet, so that helps with the regulating, there are 4 people on the team protecting the world, I don't really know their jobs very well, other than that Jason can regulate the entire internet without even thinking about it, Vixen is fast enough to make my eyes think that she is as slow as me, while still stabbing me (if she wanted to). Old man just seems to do what he wants, I have heard none of the others mention him before, so I don't bring him up, in case he wants to remain secret for some reason, though I expect the others do the same for the same reason. While all of those with powers know that it is a dream, they actually don't know the real truth, like the old man does. That I am the dreamer. They all just know part of the truth, that it is a dream.

fake memories
I am not gonna type too much now, and definitely not any of the gory ones, but if you want to hear all of the gory details, just ask me and I will PM you one of these insane dreams and memories.

Along with dreams that I have been a part of that involved torturing, by people that had powers that surpassed my own, either due to lack of experience or lucidity. Some of them seem to know that I am more important and maybe even know that I am the dreamer, of course, they may just know me as the son of the protector.

Every time that I have a fake dream memor, when I wake up... it is stronger than other fake dream memories, the ones I create. It is like remembering any other dream, so it then seems like any other dream, even though it didn't seem to exist in the past of my life. For some reason it seems to make more sense when thinking of past thoughts on dreams. There are other buried memories that I have accessed that aren't torture ones, and they all fit perfectly creepily into my childhood dreams. For instance, twice while driving down the road, I have seen old buildings that reminded me of places that the witches kept me. Sometimes torturing, other times, they would just ask me seemingly random questions.

@FM,
Yeah, it is kind of like a place that I can sneak off into during the day and enjoy the solitude if I need to. When I am with other humans I try to think about them, but when I am playing video games or trying to sleep, it is nice to think of Z♠dra.

@Alex
I honestly think that a lot of it would have been better if I had done it purposefully in the beginning, but I waited as well as trying things that didn't really lean towards my skill set. I recommend finding what you are good at and sticking to that, make sure to be super creative in solutions to problems and don't make boxes to keep yourself in.