... and decided to join this forum in an effort to reinforce the seriousness of my aim. I've had a couple of close calls in the past, and last Monday I very nearly made the leap. Now I'm resolved to learn how to LD.

Here's the ending of last Monday's dream. It's excerpted from my newly-started dream journal (so sorry if the style is a little too lax at times). See what you make of it:

Next, I'm sitting at a table with a small group of young men (maybe 5 or 6). Open air, clear darkening summer sky. A stone wall (a fragment of some larger structure?) is near our wooden table. The table is located a little higher up than the rest of the landscape: maze-like stone walls and cobbled streets snaking in their midst.

We drown our pints and the effect is instantaneous. Things get truly weird: all of us are laughing, totally losing control over ourselves. The drink had no taste, but I'm reacting to it as if it had contained a large quantity of alcohol: I'm sliding down the bench I'm sitting on (I'm the only one on it, the rest of the group face me). I think to myself: "What is this?", refering to the drink's hysterically sudden effect.

Then, I lose control over my hands. An invisible force picks me up, seeing how I'm slouched on the wooden bench. I become terrified. I'm sure I'm having a nightmare. As I panic more and more, an ethereal voice begins to speak to me. It says something close to: "Because I know you wish to control your dreams, I have come to guide you through..."

At this point I'm thinking that I am a schizophrenic and my cuckoo serial killer's "voice" has finally awoken. I begin to withdraw from the dream. Just then I realize that the voice (which echos slightly) is my own! I just hadn't recognized it because it sounded somewhat alien, more somber and dark.

But it's too late. I wake up and curse. I was so close! What would have happened if I hadn't panicked? I guess the "meta-me" would have shown me the robes, some basic dream manipulation tricks and then let me try my hand at it. He wasn't trying to possess me: there's a clear story unfolding here: first, the magic drink makes me lose all control and then the meta-me picks me up. Sort of like rebooting a computer. Or reprogramming it.