Thread: Task of the Month for January 2017

Advanced I Fail
1/09
5:00pm In a short nap I woke up and looked around before I got up.. There was a girl standing in front of my tall dresser rummaging in the top drawer so I got up and she said "I'm looking for toys" I said "Follow me" We went thru the door into an old western hotel lobby and thinking I could do the pencil task on the fly I went to the desk to sign in..I had to ask the clerk for a pencil but all he had was a pen so I said watch this and wished it to be a pencil.
Before I could see what I got a guy came flying out of an upstairs room knocking the balcony railing off, Some chairs fell apart and then the whole place started falling down around us so I flew out the door with the girl hanging onto my ankle saying "Wait for meeee!" I turned around as the place collapsed into a pile of sticks and dust, A post was sticking up out of it with a red and white sign on it I couldn't read and I started to cackle uncontrollably and woke myself up.

YES!!!

Spoiler for totm advanced ii:

I am moving to New Zealand, and my home is being emptied. I reach the airport, and there is a grey alien spaceship. I ask myself, 'What am I doing?" I become lucid after approx 5 reality checks. I remember the other tasks, but the dream is too fragile. I touch the ground to attempt to increase vividness, but to not much effect. I see the spaceship, and remember advanced ii and hop on. The interior is like a passenger planes, but the ceiling is glass and see-through. The seats are a vanilla colour, and the controls look relatively easy. I fly it, encountering a few obstacles, which I MAY type up. I land easily, and I am in New Zealand. Out of sheer exhaustion, I vizualize losing lucidity.

TOTM advanced ii - lucid - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Originally Posted by naturespirit

YES!!!

Spoiler for totm advanced ii:

I am moving to New Zealand, and my home is being emptied. I reach the airport, and there is a grey alien spaceship. I ask myself, 'What am I doing?" I become lucid after approx 5 reality checks. I remember the other tasks, but the dream is too fragile. I touch the ground to attempt to increase vividness, but to not much effect. I see the spaceship, and remember advanced ii and hop on. The interior is like a passenger planes, but the ceiling is glass and see-through. The seats are a vanilla colour, and the controls look relatively easy. I fly it, encountering a few obstacles, which I MAY type up. I land easily, and I am in New Zealand. Out of sheer exhaustion, I vizualize losing lucidity.

TOTM advanced ii - lucid - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Well done, The wings look good on you ..
Visualize losing lucidity!..Now there's another task for TOTM..

Failure for Basic I (forgotten Xmas present) LINK TO DJ

Spoiler for Jan TotM Basic I:

From there I walk away and visit more places, houses and shops, trying to find a Christmas tree and some forgotten presents for TotM
Last house I visit, owned by a bearded guy, has a Xmas tree, but no presents

Tryed the bonus task as I love the idea of going to Pandora. I tryed to make a portal a few times, funny thing came on wall asking me for my wifes credit card so I walked off and continued not to get there. Next time will expect to find Pandora when I open a door. I'd love to be able to fly to Pandora but usually can only fly to a certain hight and not all the way to space

Originally Posted by Patjunfa

Tryed the bonus task as I love the idea of going to Pandora. I tryed to make a portal a few times, funny thing came on wall asking me for my wifes credit card so I walked off and continued not to get there. Next time will expect to find Pandora when I open a door. I'd love to be able to fly to Pandora but usually can only fly to a certain hight and not all the way to space

You can take the Galactic shortcut.. Spin to Pandora

Doh! Last night I made two attempts at Basic Task i and after the second attempt I thought I had nailed it, but it seems that I did not properly memorize the task. I had remembered it (even in waking life) as "Find a forgotten Christmas present and open it," but now that I look at the list again, I see that the instructions specify that it should be found "under the tree"! So my success was hindered by poor preparation, but I'll still post an excerpt from my second attempt because I liked the gift I found:

Looking around, I soon spotted a wrapped gift on the bedside table. It was a small square box, around two inches wide and one inch high, made of that shiny gold cardboard that is common in gift boxes, and wrapped with a red ribbon. I started to untie the ribbon and realized that I was wearing gloves. At first I thought it an oddity, but quickly understood that it was just the dream's way of representing the slight awkwardness I felt in my fingers as I tried to complete this fine motor activity. I considered pulling off the gloves but recognized that it would just be a pointless waste of time, and decided instead to ignore them. At least they were thin gloves, and didn't impede me that much in my attempt to open the box. By the time it was open, they were gone.

This time I was very pleased with what I found in the box. It looked like a single confection of some sort. "Perfect, I love food!" I thought to myself happily. I pulled it out and looked it over. It was not very distinguished in shape, light brown in color and vaguely round, but a bit lumpy. There was a darker spot in the center like a piece of chocolate. [Possible source: I've been eating my mother's Christmas cookies, which have a spot of apricot jam covered with chocolate in the center. They have a much firmer texture overall than this one did, though.] The surface was dry but felt a bit pliant between my fingers, a sort of rubbery texture.

I bit into the confection and found the mouthfeel similar to what the outer texture had led me to anticipate. There was just the hint of a thin crust, and then the inside was soft but chewy. It reminded me of mochi but was firmer and easier to chew. At this point I was analyzing it with the idea of possibly attempting to recreate it in waking life. I knew that it would have to be based on glutinous rice flour. However, the overall taste was lightly chocolatey and fruity. I looked where I had bitten and distinctly saw raisins, both black and gold. There were also pieces of another fruit that was harder to identify. It had faint striations that reminded me of the fresh jackfruit I had eaten last night in WL (so that was probably the source), but this had the texture of a dried fruit. Can jackfruit be dried and baked into cookies? I couldn't say. If not, I thought that dried apricot might work just as well. The taste could have been either; it was hard to tell with all the other flavors going on. I finished the confection and found it very satisfying. If I ever do manage to recreate something like this, I'll have to post the recipe here!

Originally Posted by Verre

realized that I was wearing gloves. At first I thought it an oddity, but quickly understood that it was just the dream's way of representing the slight awkwardness I felt in my fingers as I tried to complete this fine motor activity. I considered pulling off the gloves but recognized that it would just be a pointless waste of time, and decided instead to ignore them:

Lovely dream awareness/insight. educational

Completed Basic I - Find a forgotten Christmas present under the tree and open it
LINK TO DJ

Relevant part

Spoiler for Jan TotM Basic I:

There is a small house, just a white cube basically, a tree and very little else.

I open the door and enter the building. There is a Christmas tree with several presents under it. Yay ! This wasn't expected !
I pick a 30cm gift, it's wrapped in red paper with golden ribbon and go outside. I slowly and purposedly open it, as I want to enjoy the surprise of what I fill find inside. I remove the ribbon, open and finally tear the paper. It's a mid-size LEGO set ! It has a small yellow excavator and two minifigures. I notice how the model looks small compared to box size.

Link to DJ
Beginner - Task 1 - Succes - I saw a giant lake and jungle at the end of my street in very great detail!
Beginner - Task 6 - Succes - The sky was a very pure color blue and it looked like it was made out of crystal.

Originally Posted by Silentium

Link to DJ
Beginner - Task 1 - Succes - I saw a giant lake and jungle at the end of my street in very great detail!
Beginner - Task 6 - Succes - The sky was a very pure color blue and it looked like it was made out of crystal.

Yay, I think your'e the first wing with green stars..

Spoiler for massage and and bonus:

the dream starts and I am in a void. I imagine the massage and it starts. really good back massage starts and I start realizing that there are weird things happening. too many hands and weird shaped hands. I decide to let it continue to stabilize the rest of the dream. I stand and I cant see well, the things that were massaging me were tree roots. I decide " I must be at a place like Pandora!" and the place lights up. It is deffinitely not Pandora, but it is lit up in mainly yellow. I walk around a bit and it just looks like a normal forest. the two exceptions being moving trees and glowing moss.

Ok so I completed also Adv II - Get on an Alien spaceship LINK TO DJ

Relevant excerpt

Spoiler for Adv II:

Note: I am on Mars

Then I notice a partially buried white disc. I know it's a flying saucer, although it's very small, like 30 cms. The top is made of white metal, bottom is black plastic. The bottom has few mumbered buttons and the instructions to make it normal size. I press the buttons in sequence, the disc pops open, it's now a proper saucer, 15-20m diameter. I use the catwalk to get inside.
The interior has many instruments, monitors, button panels, "flying" touch screens and more.
I notice a twisted violet / black basin, from which I pick am object having same color patterns. It envelops my right arm. I understand it's a kind of armor. Since it looks cool, I put my other arm in it, and I get both my arms and my shoulders covered by it.

Advanced I & II - Pencil & Alien Spaceship - Success on both

Spoiler for The dream with both the 2 advanced TOTM successes:

Spoiler for The pregame:

I haven't put any focus on WILDs in quite some time but was motivated to mix attempts back in the last 2 nights, but only after doing my MILD to increase chances of my fairly trusty DILDs if the WILD fails. At BTB I do location-aha-MILD first, followed by face to face, clear view release and some REM eye movement simulation (4 eye sweeps behind closed eyelids). The face to face and REM simulation are found to be the most efficient method of losing the feel of my waking body. I get a good number of color and pattern HH's, followed by some that resemble objects and people, followed by dreamlets. At those first two stages I was able to use a technique of "reaching" for additional senses related to the items more than just the visual: primarily tactile and temperature, but sometimes sounds and smells that match with the visual. I didn't remember to try taste. For the third stage where I was getting dreamlets I found that I had to become more passive it seemed because I was finding my senses return to my waking body or perhaps within an FA. I didn't test it, assuming FA's and decided I did need to be more passive during these dreamlets, perhaps wrongly. I know passive is generally recommended but since I have a fair bit of experience with WILDs I feel more inclined toward the active side of the scale. Anyway, I end up in an FA and then an actual waking or FA where I go for a WILD.

I am naked in bed with my wife and for some reason my mother in law is there and I seem to be semi-lucid at this stage but as more people arrive I seem to drop below semi-lucid and get caught up in the dream. I see this commercial anti-bacterial spray I have looked for in the past and ask the guy where he got it without a good answer. I either wake or have another FA in my normal bed/scenario and go for a DEILD but feels more like a WILD with HH's and back to reaching for additional senses tied to the HH visuals.

After some fading in and out of HHs I get a more steady one that looks most like a cave opening at first and imagine some cooler air emanating from it. It develops into a a vague looking canyon and then to a canyon formation like you might see in Arches National Park with a double arch entrance to a canyon opening where both "arches" were relatively flat on their top sides but the bottom "arch" had an arch shape to it whereas the top "arch" was also relatively flat across the bottom as well. This was all in a brightly lit daylight scene once the arches formed. This morphed from more of a natural formation to something purposely built like you might see in a sci-fi set on a canyon-like planet. I want to go there but it seems my dream body is still forming so I use intent with my eyes to start moving in that direction and I reach for the sensation of the wind on my face and body and it feels like a slightly cool breeze and I am now flying in my dream body. As I get to the canyon "entrance" I land due to the low clearance and find my self alternating between walking and crawling in a very cool scene that seems a lot like a dry cave but tons of light coming in on the far side that I want to get to and also light coming from the side I came in on. It was a very cool place to explore, but I love caves and canyons. It also reminded me of some of my favorite lucid dreams like the wall and childhood "treasures" found on the beach of the grassy sea (posted in my DJ on DV somewhere a good ways back). As I get to the end of the low clearance I fly up and out to the next bend in the canyon and think of one of the TOTM's and decide that an alien spaceship will be the right around the bend but nothing is there. I then decide it will be at the top of this canyon wall to my left and I fly up to the top of it and there it is a huge mega spaceship with an outer shell that is made up of many circular metal panels with lattice work in between, perhaps 100 circular panels on the side of the ship that I can see. I fly into the lattice work and I feel myself being pulled further into the craft with a fade to darkness at first but soon after a bright long and fairly wide hall appears that looks like a mall with humans walking around and a food place to my right. Perhaps the scenario is that the dream aliens created an environment where I would feel comfortable but I proceeded to treat it just like any dream scene. I tried to slow down one lady passing by, but she seemed in a hurry and I look ahead down the hallway/walkway of the "mall" and see a tall beautiful lady that looks slightly not of this world with her unusually big and stunningly attractive eyes. After the experience with the previous lady I made sure I would be able to stop her in her tracks by creating the back story of: "Finally we are reunited! It has been so long!" grasping both of her hands face to face and giving her a big wet kiss. I feel myself getting rather excited but I remember to calm down. I think of another TOTM, the pencil one and tell her I have something to show her and reach in my back pocket but coming up empty handed. I then ask her if she has a pencil and she pulls one out of her purse and I try to float it in the air in front of me and it disappears. I then walk over to the food place and ask the guy behind the counter for a pencil and he gives me one. I see an order stub on the counter and float the pencil with the tip touching the paper and tell it to draw something and it starts doodling. It looks like nothing more than a toddler's drawing but as I look closer, it looks like it morphs into words on the order stub. I wake and quickly use the bathroom in order to get back to dreaming, this time RCing to make sure I'm actually awake. I jot down a few keywords from the dream and a few quick drawings of the canyon arches and the alien craft lattice work and go back to bed, forgetting to write down the words that I remembered.

DJ entry: January 15th 2017: 2 TOTMs Completed, Alien Craft, Canyons, Sense of Adventure,WILD Style Transition - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

Ask a Pencil to draw something

Spoiler for Dream:

Why did I let go of my rope? I must have entered into the dream, better check. I try to pull out some energy and it comes out in the normal rasengan shape. I see 2 other hands around it, but when I let go of it, it floats into the air and I still have control of it. I send it away. The other two hands are gone. I have the pencil in my hand that I had planned. I realize that I am in the void, I imagine a desk and there is a desk and bookshelf. Perfect! I fly over and float in front of the other people. I toss my pencil in the air and start moving it around until it seems to be moving of its own accord. I grab a piece of paper and say "Write something", it then Just draws a big I on the center of the paper. I then realize that it might be draw something "Draw something" It then starts with a really detailed pic. I grab a book while waiting for it to finish the drawing. I can't seem to read it very well, probably because there is no light. I pull my phone out. I can see it a little better, but definitely not getting a full book from this. I then look through my phone, the main page works, but the rest don't seem to work. I look back down at the paper and the picture is what I thought it would be. Mickey Mouse.

Of course, this was in the morning, so I am woken again by my daughter. :/

I'm going to try

Advanced Task i - Ask a pencil to draw something. (Naturespirit)

I'm not sure if I should write a spoiler here, but next time I am lucid I am going to close my eyes, say take me to my art studio, find a pencil and tell it to draw something. Can't wait.

I was able to get the "ask a pencil to draw something" task done!
(Although, I hope it still counts, since I didn't really "ask" it to draw something. I just "willed" it to draw something, without trying to influence what it was.)

Spoiler for Dream:

01/17/2017
Dream Two:
"Pencildragon"
(Lucid)

I was at some outdoor carnival or festival, held out in some rural field at dusk. Munching on cotton candy while I walked, I spontaneously realized that I was dreaming. Immediately, I was surprised at how much I could smell and taste the cotton candy (I have very few experiences with tastes and smells in lucid dreams), and even though the dream already felt very clear and grounded, I decided to take a few moments to touch my surroundings, running my hand along the wooden frame of a wooden kiosk nearby. Raising my free hand up in front of my face, I saw that my fingers were very wavy, which was a bit at odds with the solidity of everything else around me.

Quickly, I tried to think of what I had planned to do with my lucidity once attained it, before I'd gone to bed. I remembered the 'Tasks of the Month' and that I wanted to try the pencil task (which was to "ask a pencil to draw something for you"). I turned back to the kiosk, expecting to find a pad and pencil there, in which I could do the experiment. Sitting atop the counter, I found a pad and a few, loose, colored pencils. I picked up one pencil - blue, I believe - and set it in the center of the pad. Without speaking, I attempted to "will" the pencil to draw something for me. The only thing I remember, about the actual process, was the pencil moving back and forth and making a few scribbles, but it ended up drawing a (quite simplistic) dragon. (One of the art pieces I have been brainstorming on, in waking life, has been a dragon. I haven't yet drawn the final draft, but I did draw a dragon thumbnail, about a week ago).

Satisfied that I had completed the task, I took to the air and flew away from the carnival to do some exploring. While flying over the wide, green fields of the early evening countryside, I looked below me to see an actual dragon, roaming around the landscape and idly blowing plumes of fire at random. It had sort of a cartoonish, video game feel to it (I had been playing PlayStation VR, before bed - no dragon games, though), and felt as if it was just a manifestation of the dragon that was drawn on the paper. I decided not to bother with the creature and continued flying over the field. I don't really remember anything afterward.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut Zero

I was able to get the "ask a pencil to draw something" task done!
(Although, I hope it still counts, since I didn't really "ask" it to draw something. I just "willed" it to draw something, without trying to influence what it was.)

Spoiler for Dream:

01/17/2017
Dream Two:
"Pencildragon"
(Lucid)

I was at some outdoor carnival or festival, held out in some rural field at dusk. Munching on cotton candy while I walked, I spontaneously realized that I was dreaming. Immediately, I was surprised at how much I could smell and taste the cotton candy (I have very few experiences with tastes and smells in lucid dreams), and even though the dream already felt very clear and grounded, I decided to take a few moments to touch my surroundings, running my hand along the wooden frame of a wooden kiosk nearby. Raising my free hand up in front of my face, I saw that my fingers were very wavy, which was a bit at odds with the solidity of everything else around me.

Quickly, I tried to think of what I had planned to do with my lucidity once attained it, before I'd gone to bed. I remembered the 'Tasks of the Month' and that I wanted to try the pencil task (which was to "ask a pencil to draw something for you"). I turned back to the kiosk, expecting to find a pad and pencil there, in which I could do the experiment. Sitting atop the counter, I found a pad and a few, loose, colored pencils. I picked up one pencil - blue, I believe - and set it in the center of the pad. Without speaking, I attempted to "will" the pencil to draw something for me. The only thing I remember, about the actual process, was the pencil moving back and forth and making a few scribbles, but it ended up drawing a (quite simplistic) dragon. (One of the art pieces I have been brainstorming on, in waking life, has been a dragon. I haven't yet drawn the final draft, but I did draw a dragon thumbnail, about a week ago).

Satisfied that I had completed the task, I took to the air and flew away from the carnival to do some exploring. While flying over the wide, green fields of the early evening countryside, I looked below me to see an actual dragon, roaming around the landscape and idly blowing plumes of fire at random. It had sort of a cartoonish, video game feel to it (I had been playing PlayStation VR, before bed - no dragon games, though), and felt as if it was just a manifestation of the dragon that was drawn on the paper. I decided not to bother with the creature and continued flying over the field. I don't really remember anything afterward.

Having done it as a Task I think is what counts.. However you did it or whatever it drew is probably not relevant so I would say it counts..Don't forget to apply to permission groups in your control panel for wings.

I tried something very similar but got way different results..I simply said "Hey Dream, I want a pencil to draw something or me" A girl with four arms appeared and handed me three items,
A chunk of wood, A hoop of barbed wire and an ice cube tray and 'Ordered" me to stuff them down my pants and jump down a slide to the level below. I obeyed her but only got halfway down the slide when I woke up.....

Originally Posted by woblybil

I tried something very similar but got way different results..I simply said "Hey Dream, I want a pencil to draw something or me" A girl with four arms appeared and handed me three items,
A chunk of wood, A hoop of barbed wire and an ice cube tray and 'Ordered" me to stuff them down my pants and jump down a slide to the level below. I obeyed her but only got halfway down the slide when I woke up.....

Barbed wire down the pants? Ouch!

Advanced Task i - Ask a pencil to draw something.

while lucid in the current contest going on, I decide to ask a pencil to draw.

Spoiler for Advanced Task i:

I come out of one room into another expecting to find a pencil, there is a dresser and on it are many pens and a pencil, there is some marked on paper too. I tell the pencil to draw but it does nothing. I try to telekinesis it up right but it does nothing. I set it on its tip but it falls over, I set it on its tip again and it stands there, I tell it to draw but it does nothing (occasionally it transforms into a pen and pencil back and forth at times tho, mostly a pen, and latter a bit of something else). I tell it to draw and it begins to draw. It is making marks on the paper some pencil like but mostly like ink, I move for a better position to observe. I can now see that it is drawing a house. It has chosen to draw in orthogonal style mostly from the top view, a good bit of front, and a bit of the left side. After it draws an orthogonal picture of a ranch style house, it draws some cornices on it. Then it begins to draw a water feature behind the house. It is now mostly a pen but it is filled with actual water, the water flows out from the pen and forms irrigation channels, with vegetation splashing itself into existence in between. It is now drawing a full fledged FarmVille style scene in this way. I begin to lose the dream and wake up.

"Week" of dream time, leaving Zödra, TOTY ★★★★★ - Dream Journals - Lucid Dreaming - Dream Views

alien spaceship.

I attempted getting a massage from a DC, but the only DC I had available was a dog and the dog used its head rather than its paws to give me a belly rub. I read that massages by definition are only done with hands.

Originally Posted by dolphin

I attempted getting a massage from a DC, but the only DC I had available was a dog and the dog used its head rather than its paws to give me a belly rub. I read that massages by definition are only done with hands.

Post and link for some wings : D

^^

There are also ones where they walk with feet on your back. I say the dog did his best!

Those who have wings, please go and vote for February´s ToTM!!!

You can do it clicking here

Please: Remember to not add dashes, or difficulty rank (basic, advanced, bonus). Just add the suggestion plain as it is easier for us to process it!

Since we have a lot of suggestions and maybe you have already an idea what to vote, I am adding to the following spoiler the NEW ideas suggested this month, in case you change your opinion:

Spoiler for Latest January 2017 Suggestions:

Basic

- None Suggested.

Advanced

- Meet the Buddha. (naturespirit)
- Talk to the late Carrie Fisher. Ask what she thinks should happen to Star Wars. (naturespirit)

Bonus

- None Suggested.