Tiktaalik
Member

Fighter jet and the talking duck:
Lucid - DILD

I’m walking through a quiet housing estate and stumble across a large, black military jet with a distinct triangular shape parked in a drive way. (I looked it up, it was an F117 - Nighthawk fighter jet). It’s completely out of place and I really want to fly it over the city, so I jump up on the wing and look for a way to get in. Lucidity starts to build as I know I can get in if I expect to find a latch at the side of the cockpit which I do and open it. I climb inside onto the seat and take the aircraft steering wheel. I realise I have no idea how to drive one but again knowing how dreams work, I tell myself I can just drive it how I would expect to. So I put my foot down on a car accelerator and turn the wheel like I’m simply driving a car. The jet pulls out of the drive and I turn it around a corner and proceed to take off down the path. I simply pull the wheel down and back, as I’ve seen pilots do in movies and the aircraft lifts off the ground and takes off effortlessly. I rise into the sky, just above the roof tops at a gentle speed, more like a helicopter then a jet. I have a nice Birds Eye view and I’m in awe of what I’m seeing, now fully aware I’m lucid within a dream. I see Roads that seem to connect logically. Housing estates, busy and lived in. Cars, signs and lamp posts too. It’s a fully realised place.

Suddenly, I’m grabbed around the waist by two arms that grip tightly. I look down and see I’m no longer in the jet seat but appear to be dangling from the bottom of it like a paraglider. An adult woman with a brown pony tail is wrapped around my hips, holding on for her life. I seem to recognise her, as if she’s a dream character I’ve met before but I’m unsure if I have. “oh! Pauline!” I say, with delight. “I need your help with something” she says with a serious tone. The weight of her body brings me down to the ground and I let go of my jet, now standing on my own two feet with her still hugging me from behind.

I’m now on a cobbled back street with a row of old terrace houses to my side. “What are the lyrics to the song 14 inches long?” she asks as if interrogating me. I have no idea what she’s talking about so I make up some lyrics. “Four-teen, inches, long! Baa, Baa, Baa!” I sing and make the noises of an electric guitar as if it’s some rock song. She doesn’t respond so I grab her arm and try to pull her to my front but as I do I realise she’s light, almost weightless and I accidentally throw her across the street and see she’s now taken the form of a small mallard duck! The duck lands with a bang on the floor ahead and I hurry over to see if it’s ok. “Sorry, you ok?” I ask feeling guilty. The duck jumps up and rustles it’s tail feathers and says “I’m fine” in a rather sweet, innocent voice (like Olaf from Frozen).

Talking to an animal was my goal but now I’m here I’m not sure what to do with it so I decide to do some experimentation. “Run through this house and I’ll meet you at the other side” I tell the Duck as I want to see if a DC can follow me to a destination successfully even without my eyes on them. The duck complies and hurries into one of the houses. It’s then I notice the house number is “13”. This brings feelings of fear, due to 13 being an unlucky number and I worry something nightmarish will happen within. Sure enough, a window smashes and the poor duck flies out of it and lands on the floor in front. “An elf tried to stab me” it chuckles as if it’s funny and not something to be worried about. I look to the window and see a small elf, one of Santa’s by the look of it with a green uniform and angry expression. “Ok, come with me” I tell the duck and hurry away from the horror house. I dash down the cobbled street and think “this has been a long dream” and that thought rather nicely brings the dream to a close.

Analysis:
Funny little dream and low-level despite good dream control. Some interesting and subtle influences here. Read a flying dream before bed, I also saw an advert for Top Gun: Maverick and the fighter jet within the dream was one I had a toy of as a kid. Pauline and the 14 inches long song was random, though I have done some measuring recently in my house and maybe it had some connection to the band “9 inch nails?” My goal tonight was to talk with an animal. I was hoping for a deer due to the competition but received a talking duck instead. Interestingly the duck appeared and talked without me consciously making it and shows that something in the background of my mind was working toward this goal even if I wasn’t consciously doing so at that time.

Winter competition entry:

Night: 08/12

Talking with Tipharot:
Lucid - DILD

I’m in a laundromat’s when suddenly Matt from the lucid dream YouTube channel “Tipharot” walks in and casually starts doing his laundry next to me. It’s a bizarre coincidence and I wonder if I should say hello. “So I’ve heard you’ve started lucid dreaming?” he says first, initiating a conversation as if he knows of me. “Yeah, who told you that?” I ask, wondering who are mutual friend is but he doesn’t tell me. “I’ve actually been doing this for over 2 years now” I say, explaining I’m not a beginner. Matt laughs as if that’s nothing in comparison to him and I can tell he still sees me as a beginner. Suddenly I realise I’m talking about lucid dreaming, one of my major dream signs! I start doing a finger palm reality check and Matt begins to do the same. The finger palm isn’t working and I know it doesn’t always so I get out my phone instead and look at the time. I look away and back and see the time has changed! I do the check again and once more it changes. “Surely not” I think, finding it hard to believe this is all a dream. I do the check a 3rd time and once more the time changes. Matt has finished his check and starts talking to me again but I ignore him and step away. “My results aren’t adding up” I tell him sternly, now believing I may actually be dreaming and he is trying to distract me. I do the check one last time and confirm. I look back at Matt with pity, now seeing the truth and that he is as an unaware dream character. “This is a dream” I tell him bluntly. His expression turns to one of confusion, then fear, as he realises the devastating truth that he’s just a figment of my imagination. Sadly the dream ends quickly here.

Night: 01/12/

Fly to the tree:
Lucid - DILD

I’m on my childhood street. I can’t remember how I became lucid but I think I noticed the strangeness of my situation. I don’t remember my goal so I simply jump up and fly into the sky. My flight it successful but I feel heavy, like my dangling legs are dragging me down and I fly into the bare branches of a large tree and cling on. I look around and then have some fun swinging from the branches like a monkey until eventually I wake up.

The Door portal attempt
16/08/20
#Lucid 17 - DILD

I’m sat in my parents bathroom when suddenly I see a fine rain coming down from the ceiling. “It’s raining?” I note with surprise. I know that it’s an odd thing to occur indoors but for some reason it feels acceptable that it could happen. “Acceptable because it’s a dream?” I wonder. I stand up to investigate and though the room looks exactly like the bathroom from my memory it doesn’t feel right. I walk out onto the upstairs landing and feel a strange, shuddering sensation to my body and my surroundings and conclude it must be a dream.

I look into my Childhood bedroom and see my bed and wonder if I’m asleep in it right now in waking life. I then recall my goal to use a door as a portal and find a closed bedroom door for the experiment. “On the other side will be a forest” I tell myself and then run at the door and swing it open, expecting to find a lush, green forest on the other side but instead I’m greeted by the bedroom that should be there. I feel as though I rushed it so I try again with another door but this time the dream collapses before I reach it and I’m left floating in darkness. I notice a blue ball of light in the distance and know I’m still dreaming and have the opportunity to re-enter. I try to remain aware whilst the new dream forms but I enter the next dream without lucidity.

Lucidity: Medium
Trigger: Dream oddity
Reality check: none
Length: 1 minute (approx.)
Goals: Door portal (Fail)
Lucid count: 17

The Castle oddity
07/08/20
Lucid #16 - DILD

I’m in the back seat of a car driving down the road through my childhood village with my friends. I suddenly become aware this is odd, and feel as though what I’m experiencing isn’t real. “It’s time to move into the second act!” I chuckle to myself, feeling as though my current situation is a movie and things are going to get interesting. The car starts moving up a hill and I look out of the back window and see the familiar village from my childhood but in the distance there is a medieval kingdom and a large castle!? I know that shouldn’t be there and start to slowly become aware it’s because I’m dreaming.

Lucidity is low but I sense the dream is unstable so I start to feel the fabric on the car seats and look at my hands, concentrating on the realism which is very lifelike. Things get a bit vague here but I’m floating or flying down the road after and trying to grab a moving truck that’s coming my way. I grab the truck and hold it for a moment and then try to fly to another car but it’s then I notice my vision is failing and the dream ends.

Lucidity: Low
Trigger: Dream oddity
Reality check: none
Length: 30 seconds (approx.)
Goals: None
Lucid count: 16

Alone in the house
01/08/20
Lucid #15 - DILD

I’m laid on my old childhood bed in the dark. Everything feels completely normal and I’m simply relaxing and scrolling away on my phone when I see an image of the actor Donald Glover wearing a red suit and shades. I remember dreaming about him recently and decide to do a quick routine reality check. I do this with no real suspicion of my reality and I’m convinced this is waking life. I decide to try my vanishing ring check as the text change failed last time I tried. I close my hand and as I reopen it I’m astonished to see my fingers have become stubs and are twisted and bent in a mangled way. It is a dream! I can’t believe it and I had no doubt I was awake before! I count my fingers to double check and count 6! I’m rather excited as it came as a complete surprise.

I jump from my bed and walk onto the upstairs landing and feel a sort of rumble run up my back? The dream is trembling around me and it feels unstable and on the verge of collapse. I remind myself to stay calm and engage my senses as planned. First I listen and hear a faint noise in my ear like wind is passing by. I realise it must be my bedside fan which I remember I have on in waking life. I then try to turn the light on, not expecting it to work and sure enough it doesn’t. I try again and this time the light does flicker on dimly. I keep twisting the knob and gradually it gets lighter and lighter but with a struggle. Things feel more stable now so I head downstairs slowly and feel the smooth, wooden banister as I do. It’s dark in the house and I appear to be completely alone which gives it quite an eerie atmosphere as if at any moment something scary is going to jump out at me. I see the light is on in the kitchen and I head toward it, wondering if the dream is trying to guide me there for some reason. The kitchen is also quiet and empty but I see cereal has been spilt and scattered all over the floor? I look around for an explanation but there isn’t one? It’s as if something had happened here long before I arrived and maybe what did it is still lurking somewhere nearby. Again, it gives me the creeps so I decide it’s time to get out of here.

I head to the front door to see if I can use it to change the dream scene. I decide what I want to see on the other side and really focus. “I will see a forest, I will see a forest” I repeat and really try to expect it is behind the door. I’m ready and just about to open the door when... I’m shaken and wake up in bed. My wife has just turned over and shaken me awake! I manage to keep my eyes closed and hope I can get back into the dream but I am too awake now and unable to do so.

Lucidity: High
Trigger: Dream sign
Reality check: Ring vanish/ Finger count
Length: 1.5 minutes (approx.)
Goals: Change location (Fail)
Lucid count: 15