First successful reality check

Hey everyone,

I did my first successful reality check in a dream last night! I didn't go lucid because it was a nightmare and I just wanted out, so maybe this isn't the most interesting story, but I was so excited I wanted to share it.

In this dream, a classmate I barely know in real life, Katie, was a friend of a friend, and had an amazing house out in the country, deep in the middle of a field of wheat. It was a nightmare because several men -- burglars or something, I didn't know -- were attacking the house. Katie's mom was in the house, so we were going to try to save her.

The first thing I remember is speeding down the long drive toward her house with another anonymous person on motorbikes. In the distance I see one of the men standing by a fence with a rifle. He picks up his gun to aim at me. I have to do something. So I duck down behind the windshield of the bike to shield myself from any fire, and rev toward him at maximum speed, hoping to ram him to death. I did (as far as I can remember), yet in defiance of all physical laws he isn't hurt or even knocked down, nor do I lose control. Seems more logical that I missed him, but that's not what I remember. I panic, knowing my backside was exposed, and spin the tail around frantically. There's no way we can defeat this guy. We get away as fast as we can, hoping he won't hit us from behind.

After a gap I'm at a party with Katie, and we're recounting the story to other people, and they're impressed that I survived (and maybe Katie was the other person with me?)

Then, after another gap, I wake up. It's a beautiful morning and pleasant sunlight is streaming through the windows, except oh shit, I'm in Katie's house, and I'm hearing men outside. A line of windows wraps around the room. Suddenly, through nearly-closed blinds in front of me, I see a light go out; I realize that means the men are trying to break into her car (it made sense in the dream...) I can't see them directly, but the windows to the right have the blinds drawn; still lying in bed, I turn and see vague reflections of one of the men on a window in the right wall. It looks like he's humping the car as a joke! Unfortunately it wasn't funny in the dream, because I realize that in a moment they're going to move over and see me through the unblinded windows. I start thinking 'oh god, please let this be a dream...' and somehow I think to look at my hand! It's just as strange as I've heard. Everything in the dream seemed clear enough that looking at my hand is pretty startling. It looks kind of like I have double vision and can't focus, but it's more like one hand superimposed on top of another, and the images were waving across one another in a really weird way. (Thinking back upon it, my brain just couldn't form a clear, coherent picture of it; I think it even defied the nature of two-dimensional vision, and would be impossible to express in a real drawing!) But amazingly, it really surprises me. Is this really a dream? I think. I was really expecting to see a normal hand. Still in disbelief, I try to focus harder, thinking my eyes might be crusty or my vision blurred from just waking up. And then, the dream evaporates to reality, and I am lying in my own bed at home, pretty damn relieved!

Wow, that was a pretty crazy dream you had there! Good job on remembering to do a RC, you should be having lucids because of them in no time!

Yeah, actually I forgot to mention that I probably had the dream because yesterday I randomly decided to play Quake for the first time in a long time. I thought it was funny how it turned into a nightmare.

Your description of what your hands looked like exactly match what happened with me earlier this week. Very interesting to know that someone else's experiences are similar to mine. The only thing I remember about my dream is that I was in a dimly lit space. For some reason, I thought to look at my hands and had the same imiage of them as you did. I felt like I was struggling to do it, like my hands did not want to be seen. I put my arms back down, and tried again. I couldn't quite get to the point where I realized I was dreaming, though.

Cool! Actually, I managed to do it again the other day (and I went lucid for the first time!) and a completely different weird thing happened with my hands. This time, a stub of a 6th finger appeared on one of my hands. I could even feel it and everything. When I looked back, it had grown to full size! I think I even had seven fingers at one point, but it made me uncomfortable so I wished them away and my hands actually returned to normal.

This time in the dream I was going around my apartment complex trying to get back into my apartment. But I couldn't find one. After awhile somehow I realized I was dreaming and did the reality check. I wasn't so surprised this time. Managing to remain lucid, I decided to explore around. I did a few things, asking some people where to go, and then I started jumping around. I've had many dreams where I could jump 100s of feet, and this time was no exception, except I was lucid! It was pretty cool, jumping around above a massive tree, but my powers seemed relatively constrained. I couldn't actually fly or jump as high as I wanted, nor did I seem to be able to keep from coming down. I woke up before long.