January, 2008 - The Mermaid and the Soldier

I was alone in a jungle. I made my way carefully along a large tree branch, high above a small river. When I reached the end of the tree, I saw several creatures, each one a cross between a monkey and goblin. They were not friendly. They started throwing stuff into the river; odd plants, dirt, mud and sticks, something they claimed was spider webs with bugs in it. They also weighted my feet down with a brick and tossed me in the water. I landed in a clear spot, luckily, but I was surrounded by the junk. I would have to swim through it all. Even then, going up didn't seem like a good idea, as the monkey-goblins were still there.

I started to get worried that I would run out of breath, until a mermaid appeared and handed me air bubbles. The mermaid was advised me about the monkey-goblins. She said not to touch the kelp since the monkey-goblins would see it move at the surface. I noticed that I had a carrot in my mouth for some reason, and spit out the bits of it. The mermaid said not to let it drift away, and that we should bury it so that it wouldn't float to the surface. I tried sticking it in the sand, without much success. I eventually dug up a hole, stuck it in diagonally, and covered it back up.

The mermaid said it was time to make a break. She went over to the kelp, which was sticking up so that it resembled bars. She simply grabbed one section and pulled it open like it was a roughly rectangular door. Then we hurried through the opening, swam for a while, and scrambled onto land. I was worried for a moment that the mermaid wouldn't be able to run (for obvious reasons), but she had easily grown legs. The mermaid said there was a creature we could ride, and we would find it nearby. At first I was hopeful that it was a baby dragon, but it turned out to be a large horse.

***

The mermaid was in the water again, swimming along a canal, and I was not far behind on the bank. We reached dam with monkey-goblin guards patrolling along the top of the dam. There was a narrow passageway to the left. We had to climb up the cliff to get to it, and one of the guards saw us. Then followed a long and complicated conversation which was a series of intricate reasoning between the three of us, mostly by the mermaid. The guard apparently had to run away into exile due to some kind of rule breaking, and we convinced him not to alert the other guards of our presence.

The three of quickly made our way down the narrow passageway and found another creature to ride. It was five-foot-tall, white and furry, somehow managing to give the impression of being both fearsome and cuddly. It somewhat resembled a dog, although it was hard to tell with the masses of long, wispy fur hiding its face. It couldn't carry all of us, so it led us down another passageway where it said its sister was. Its sister turned out to be a giant pink bunny, with similar masses of long wispy fur.

We travelled until we came to a room with the door open. We jumped off the fuzzy creatures and entered the room. The door closed behind us. There was another open door on the other side of the room. Almost the entire floor was covered with thin golden chains. The fuzzies seemed depressed. They walked ahead of us, very slowly approaching the door. They were stepping carefully over the chains. I followed a few feet behind them. I somehow got the information that you had to walk over the chains without shame, which was hard for the white fuzzy because he was in love with his sister. In any case the fuzzies managed to get across the room and out the door.

I was about to go through the door when it closed. I had expected something like that to happen. A woman's disembodied voice filled the room saying, "You can't go yet." I looked back to see that the mermaid was almost over the chains, and the guard was still at the far side of the room. The voice continued, "You should get up off the floor. Try that ledge." I noticed a short ledge against the side wall. The mermaid and I both got onto it. I didn't think it would do any good. The voice sounded unnatural, neither human nor machine, and was keeping up a constant stream of chatter. The words seemed like innocent bits of helpful advice, but the tone was unmistakably mocking.

I looked around the room. There wasn't much to see. "Do you want me to catalogue what's in this room?" the voice was saying, "I know everything down to the words in the books and the dictionaries..." I focused my attention on the chains. I knew they would move, that was a given, and I didn't want to be anywhere near them when they did. And I knew the voice was in some way connected to what happened in the room. It was playing with us, dragging things out. It felt like I was stuck in the middle of a dramatic scary movie.

After staring warily at the chains for a while, I saw the guard try to run across them. The end of a chain caught his foot. He managed to get free for a short time before the other chains wrapped around him and he fell on the floor. I glanced over to see that the mermaid was still safe on the ledge, then I ran over to where the guard was and tried to pry the chains away. It didn't work. The guard started saying something about his exile, and the voice may have said something too, but I woke up.

December, 2007 - Journey Through Desert Skies

I was in a desert village on another planet. There was a guy manning a covered sales stall. The stall had a sign in front which stated that humans were allowed to work there. This was practically unheard of in that culture, where robots did everything. However, I'd been looking for just such an opportunity, so I got a job assembling hamburgers. It was ridiculously easy, but people were amazed, having never seen humans work before.

A well dressed lady came around to the back of the stall and criticized what I had done. Then she tried to flirt with the stall guy (who ignored her), and she wandered about the stall, making snide comments about everything she laid her eyes on. There was a sudden downpour, causing a flood. I helped the lady out of the water, and the three of us fled the area with nothing but an old map to guide us.

***

We were in a building with a low ceiling. I talked to the well-dressed lady for a short time. She was being nicer now. I told her and stall guy I was going to take a look around. I entered the next room over. It was a lot bigger and had a large oval pool in the center. No one was swimming, but there were a few people milling about. I walked slowly along the side of the pool. Luckily, no one paid much attention to me.

I went past the glass doors on the other side of the room, then continued circling around the pool, heading for the place I'd entered. A couple people edged past me. Then there was someone walking behind me wanting to go faster, but the space between the pool and the wall was too narrow for them to get past. I tried to speed up a little, but I started to feel my feet slipping on the wet floor. Eventually I was able to veer off to the right and let the person past. I found myself standing in front of a lady at a desk, a passageway to her left. The lady instructed me to go down the corridor into the "guest room" and grab certain items which were contained in a bag.

I walked into the room, confused. There was a bunch of stuff scattered all over a bed in the center of the room. There was a half-full bag there as well. I started putting the loose stuff back into the bag. I then I walked out of the room, carrying the bag full of items. The lady at the desk told me that I couldn't leave yet.

***

Those in charge weren't letting me leave. They were holding several other people hostage as well. By now it was night time. I was in a room with one other girl. I had been trying to find a chance to look at the map I still carried, but by the time I had a spare moment they ordered lights out. The door was kept cracked, and I noticed a dim light from the hallway. I tried to crouch by the door and use the small amount of light to read the map, but one of the warden ladies walked past the door. I ducked out of sight. Next I went over to the window, thinking maybe the moonlight would help.

I rummaged around in the dark and found a small pinch-light. I realized that it gave off too much light, so I placed in under a blanket. My roommate and I studied the map. We speculated that traveling west would not be a good idea, since that was where the main forces were stationed. South was the direction we'd come from. There were floods and many "shelters" like this one. North was the most barren part of the dessert. East seemed like the best option at first, but then we thought they would have an easier time tracking us down. We hesitantly settled on a northwest path, thinking that they wouldn't expect us to go that way. I said that we would need to leave as early in the morning as possible.

***

In the morning, the authorities came marching along single file. We managed to run past them and reach the door without being seen. I went through the door without looking back and used a flying machine to get further away. It was a simple hang glider, long and with narrow wings. The streets were crowded, and since I had a hard time getting more than a few feet above the ground, I had to swerve back and forth to avoid running into people as I sped along. Eventually I got high enough to see more than the panicked faces of people leaping out of the way.

Now the flying was a lot easier. Supposedly the contraption was made by elves. I soared away from civilization and found myself in the wilderness above a desert. I came across a circle of mountains which opened to a valley in the center. I entered the valley and spiraled upwards, flying on my own now without the aid of the glider.

I came across various types of birds, each one specialized for flying at different heights. I recognized seagulls at one point. I found that I was able to slightly change myself to have the wings of birds. I reached the top of the mountain where there was a large bird nesting. It stared at me warily. I tried changing my type wings several times. When I briefly resembled a seagull, the bird grew hostile, starting to come at me. I quickly changed to resemble the nesting bird, which calmed it down. I marveled at how aerodynamic it's wings were for a moment. The bird had backed up to its nest again, but I decided not to stick around.

As I turned to leave, the bird told me about a food source at the foot of the mountain, a type of nectar. I drifted down to the bottom of the valley. There was a variety of succulent which covered a significant portion of the valley floor. Caught inside the green plant was some watery red nectar. I was able to sip a little of it before the level went down too far for me to reach. I saw how the birds would be able to get at it with their long beaks.

September 27th, 2007 - Escape the Island

I was stranded on an island with a group of strangers. If we swam out a ways we could reach a few large rocks just off the shore, but that was it. The majority of the people spent their time bickering. I climbed to the high point of the island where it was quieter but I could still keep an eye on things. After a while, someone came to join me. They apologized, claiming it was was their fault I was stuck on the island. I said that I hadn't lost anything by getting stranded, and that it was a different group of people who had taken away what was important in my life.

 

 

I had a flashback: I was a captive on an island, much like the one in the previous scene, along with a few other people. We had arrived by bus. Everyone was very quiet, which only served to make me more nervous. I began looking for a way off the island. I sneaked into an underground building where the leaders of the captors were discussing an object, which happened to be just what I needed.

 

One person mentioned room 109, so I went to find it. It looked like a hotel room. I passed through it and onto the balcony. Once outside, I was able to telepathically receive an instructional message from an ally. I picked up a strange flying instrument from just inside the room, and I knew instinctively how to use it. I put it behind me and started to fly, holding onto each end with my hands. It worked a bit like a hang glider. I rose a bit higher and found myself above a forest. I had to be careful not to go too high, but eventually I was flying smoothly away from the place.

September 23rd, 2007 - A Door to Anywhere

My dad and I entered a store and reserved two tables (which was necessary to buy items, for some reason). Then we started looking around. One isle was nothing but stencils. My dad wanted to know why I didn't want any, I used to love stencils! He started pointing out how cool some of them were. There were entire scenes that could be made from stencils, there were even stencils for drawing intricate patterns on special pens! I felt a little guilty now for rejecting all those really cool stencils...I still didn't want any though.

A ton of kids about my age started showing up, some of whom I knew or had seen around my old school, but most were strangers. The parents' cars filled the parking lot and crowds of people headed for the store. My friend TF was there, and I was talking to her. I looked at the crowd of people, suddenly thankful we already had tables reserved.

***

I was with about two dozen of the kids from the store. We discovered a building with a tall tower connected to it. There was a circular, metal staircase going up the tower. I struggled to keep up with the three or four people in front of me, but they were going pretty fast, and the staircase was steep and narrow. At one point I tripped. The person behind me ran into me and tripped also. Then there was a domino affect of everyone all bunched up together, falling on each other. At first I had been embarrassed for being the one to trip first, but when I saw that it was going to cascade all the way back, I just rolled my eyes and got back on my feet. I held on to the center rail in an attempt to go really fast without losing my footing again.

I was just short of reaching the top of the tower when the people ahead of me came rushing back down, forcing the rest of us to reverse direction as well. I didn't know what they had seen, but whatever it was it meant we were all being held hostage in the building. We were ordered to face against the wall in small groups. After standing there doing nothing for a while, my fear was overruled by impatience. I started hatching a plan of escape.

After a guard passed, my group managed to sneak in a few whispered exchanges. Then I was able to walk by another group of about five people and say a few words without being noticed. We obtained a special item from the tower and escaped from the building. Once we were a safe distance away, we dispersed. I found my mom, who began driving along the freeway. I didn't need to ride in the car because I could fly. I didn't have too much trouble keeping up. I had a lot of fun manuvering around the canyon-like landscape.

A couple minutes later a boy and a girl joined me, one on either side. I don't know them in waking life, but they were both about my age and they seemed familiar at the time. We slowly veered to the left to glide above the freeway. I began singing "Home on the Range" for no apparent reason, and the girl joined in. We sang it twice, possibly because a key change was necessary. I had a little trouble singing in tune.
We made a 90 degree turn to the left and headed out across the relatively barren landscape in that direction. The boy was now on my right, and the girl was further to the right. It finally sank in that flying meant I was dreaming. Instead of getting overly excited and risking waking up, I simply accepted it as a mildly interesting fact and mentioned to my companions that it was a dream. I counted my fingers. Nine. I told the boy to count his fingers. He counted ten and looked at me as if this were perfectly normal. "On one hand...?" I asked, pointedly. He looked shocked and hurriedly counted again, coming up with some other high number.

We were now flying over streams which eventually converged and flowed into a delta. They had a greenish tint to them. Then, flying low, we passed by a small one-story building. Through one of the windows I could see what looked like a classroom with lots of little kids and a few older ones. We stopped across from the back of the building. I said something like, "This place is awesome!" The girl said that I'd yelled that quite loudly. Through the window at the back of the building, people were staring at me. I covered my mouth with embarrassment. Then I figured I might as well forget it, since there were better things to do with a dream than be embarassed.

I landed on my feet, suddenly having an idea. I would conjure up a door and create a scene behind it. The door was not difficult to make, but it took me a moment to realize that whenever I visualize something, it's almost immediately there. I started thinking next about what scene to create. I imagined a square, somewhat shallow pool. I visualized a blue floor and lights embedded in the sides. There would be large, red clay tiles around the edges, and mosaics around that. I didn't know what to do with the sky at first, but then I imagined a pastel sunset. My friends were waiting, having landed beside me, so I decided it was good enough and I opened the door and stepped through.

I was amazed at how vivid it had turned out."Wow." I said. The large red tiles around the edge of the pool were one of the clearest features. The pool was just as I had imagined it, although the sky was a little darker than I had planned, so the mosaics around the edge didn't show up well. When I turned to the left, I could see the setting sun. I laughed and pointed out the lines of a "corner" that showed up because of the vivid colors of the sunset. It was like we were in a giant cube.

The three of us jumped into the pool, which was a comfortable temperature. After going under water several times, I found I could keep my eyes the whole time, which I never do without goggles in waking life. Then I noticed I was holding my breath; from what I had read about lucid dreaming, I should be able to breathe even under water. I put this notion to the test. It was true!

When I came back up, I got my friends' attention and said, "See how long you can hold your breath, 1, 2, 3!" and we all went underwater at the same time. This time I just breathed naturally and could see without even thinking about it. Once the others realized I wasn't holding my breath, they started laughing. Then I started doubting whether I would be able to stay underwater and I got a little water up my nose. I came up to the surface and coughed a bit. "Let's go inside." the girl suggested, so I followed the other two into a room. I didn't have time to make out what it looked like before I woke up.

September 19th, 2007 - The Dream Circle

I did the WILD technique after waking up in the middle of the night.

I was in a circle of people who gave off a calm feeling. We were planning to visit the subconscious mind. It would be similar to the WILD technique, only I was already lucid dreaming, so I wouldn't have to drift off to sleep. Instead, I went through the floor. I drifted down into a large cavern. There was a bull riding competition going on. The challenge involved some other task as well, possibly herding some other type of animal. I watched several people try. Most of them fell off or ended up chasing the bull all over the cavern. One guy managed to ride the bull easily and accomplish whatever the task was.

Then it was my turn. I thought it shouldn't be too hard, but I wound up chasing the bull all over the cavern. Eventually I was just trailing after it slowly. Several times I talked to it, trying to get it to understand. Once the bull began to get tired as well, it told me to stand in a certain spot. We were near a tall structure of scaffolding by a construction site. The bull wanted me to stand behind the scaffolding, claiming that I was supposed to trust its word. I almost did, but I got an uneasy feeling and hesitated. I glanced up and saw that above the indicated spot there were a couple of buckets. One of these buckets tipped and poured out acid as a construction worker pulled on a rope attached to it's handle.

***

I was in the guest bathroom (no longer lucid) experimenting with the light switch. I turned it off, then quickly turned it on again. I turned it off once more, and found it odd that I felt absolutely no fear. I sat down in a chair, facing the mirror. I couldn't see very well, but I had a general sense of what was around me. I got the impression that there were other people in the room who wanted me to turn the light back on. After a moment I stood up and did so. I turned around and saw two or three people sitting near where I had just been been. I found this amusing. I walked away, catching a glimpse of my own refection as I passed the mirror. I had a bland expression and was almost smiling.

Something about the light switch had informed me that I was dreaming. Or, more accurately, reminded me. I didn't do a reality check, because I already knew. I went through the wall. It felt similar to when I had gone through the ground. I came out the other side in the kitchen. Unlike waking life, it was located in an apartment. My mom was there. She said to me, "...I know I'm awake, because I counted my fingers..." and she started counting. Before she made it past five, I said, "I'm dreaming! You're probably dreaming too. Otherwise, I couldn't do this; watch." and I phased effortlessly through the solid glass window.

Outside now, I flew around for a while. I landed in a corridor down a short set of stairs. There was a spoken advertisement for a medicine of sorts, which was supposed to help lower back pains. My lower back was hurting. Since the voice was disembodied, I interpreted it as my subconscious. I was starting to get very irritated with my sub-c, but I picked up the jar of translucent blue capsules and swallowed one. I walked up the stairs, which led back to the gathering of people who formed the dream circle from earlier. One or two people were complaining about back problems. One guy took the jar of medicine from me, and everyone came over to inspect it. "But we have nothing to burn it with!" one person lamented. I gathered that we would usually burn various ingredients with the medicine to receive more interesting messages. This time we would have to make do with the plain medicine.

We all laid down in the lawn chairs. I went through the floor, wondering what the next message would be. I was once again in a cavern, only this one was smaller and closer to the surface. A few of the people from the circle were with me. For some reason I felt like I was supposed to go down further, so I did. Things started to happen quickly, and I was really confused. Even though I was trying to pay attention to what was happening. I had a closed umbrella, which I pointed downwards to travel in that direction. I plunged beneath the surface of a pool of freezing cold water (complete with ice cubes floating around in it). This was not pleasant. I opened the umbrella and pointed it up, which brought me out of the water and all the way back to the circle.

I got up and looked around. Towards the center of the circle there was a chair with a violin on it. Thinking it was mine, I picked it up. Then realized that it was someone else's, more expensive violin. I set it back down carefully and saw my own violin on the next chair over. I picked my violin up along with the bow. I realized I was still holding the bow from the other violin as well. I started getting confused. I put my violin down so I could figure out which bow was which. For a few moments I just stood there, looking stupidly at the two bows in my hands. When logic returned, I remembered how to identify my bow.

A guy with curly brown hair came along and put some of the lawn chairs in the sitting position. The guy who had taken the medicine got into an argument with him, saying that we wanted the lawn chairs to be flat. I noticed that my own chair was propped up. I was able to get it back to the way it was by lifting it up and over two stops, which had held it in place. I mentioned that when it was in the original position, it could be rocked forward and used as a seat just as easily (this logic made more sense in the dream). Both people gave me a blank stare, then continued arguing. Now I ignored them and stood up. I saw TK sitting in a chair a little ways from the circle. I went over and talked to him for a while. We started making fun of a pink boa. After a while I walked away. The boa had somehow gotten torn to bits, and there were feathers everywhere.

I felt myself drift into a lighter sleep momentarily, but I kept myself from waking up. Contemplated what to do next with my lucidity, I decided to try psychokinesis. I found an open space and hovered in the air. I thought the clouds were beautiful. It crossed my mind that I would be able to levitate a house if I wanted to. I decided to try something bigger. On a whim, I created and levitated a giant rubber ball with the slightest of thoughts. It was too easy to be very entertaining.

I forgot the ball and saw a wide expanse of water; the ocean. I started running across the surface of it. It wasn't nearly as graceful as I had planned. I splashed a lot, although I didn't go further into the water than just above my ankles. I started to lose track of the fact that I was dreaming, and I was a little worried about the possibility of sharks and other sea creatures. However, I still knew that I was relatively safe (I knew that if I had the power to walk on water, sharks shouldn't be that much of a problem). There was another woman there who was also walking on water. Her presence was reassuring, and she gave me tips on how to keep my footing.

By the time I reached shore, I had lapsed into a normal dream. I now seemed to think that the circle had been a music camp, hence the violins, and therefore I wasn't surprised to see Ludwig van Beethoven staggering out of the ocean and onto the beach, dripping with salt water. Someone was coming. I got a case of deja vu. I remembered that the last time this had happened, someone had come to kill Beethoven. I tried to save him, but I led him the wrong way and they had succeeded in their nefarious plans. Armed with this forewarning, I led Beethoven behind a wall instead of out into the open as I had done in my deja vu memory. I had to use hand signals, as he didn't seem to hear me very well.

There were several similar walls, which formed a maze. I just tried to keep Beethoven out of view. I figured I was relatively safe, since there was no price on my own head. We came across an outdoor stage where a small group of musicians was setting up. Beethoven wanted to join them, but I said that he shouldn't go near music or the assassins would find him.

Further along there was a fair. I knew this place was safe. It was allegedly "not the sort of place where assassins go". My dad was there. He led Beethoven to the bathroom to hide until further notice. I felt happy now, and I wanted to go on some of the rides. My dad and I went on the ride where chairs at the end of chains go in a circle and swing outward into the air. It was a lot more unnerving than it usually is; there were no seat belts and I was finding it difficult to hold on. I woke up soon after.

Introduction to WILD

WILD is a technique for obtaining lucid dreams. It stands for Wake In Lucid Dream. Unlike reality checks, where one realizes one is in a dream while in the middle of it, the WILD technique involves no lapse in consciousness between being awake and being asleep. That is, if you're successful, you will be in a lucid state from the very beginning of the dream.

There are many different versions of the WILD technique, but what I will describe is the most basic, which is the only one I have personal experience with:

Have you ever been about to drift off to sleep when you suddenly jerked awake because you felt like you were falling? Well, the idea here is to fall asleep the way you normally would, but hold on to the thought that you're about to be dreaming. Wait for the "falling feeling", so that instead of being surprised and waking up, you can just let it happen. And instead of letting your thoughts wander completely - which generally leads to a regular dream which you probably won't remember the beginning of - be aware of what you're experiencing.

The falling experience will go on for a while. You may see shapes, colors, hear sounds, etc. during this time. By the time you stop or "land", you'll be in the dream. If you still remember it's a dream by that time, then congratulations, you're in a lucid dream!


Note that some people experience hallucinations before the falling feeling, but that seems to be associated with the other versions of the WILD technique more than this one. I think it's because the other versions involve a lot more conscious effort and awareness, whereas this one is a lot closer to falling asleep "normally" - that is, a lot more wandering thoughts and not as much consciousness. It's much more likely that you'll accidentally fall asleep without remembering to be aware of the process.

September 18th, 2007 - Dodging Bullets

I was watching a story. There was a couple who were getting married really quickly because they were going to die in two days. The dream transitioned to where I was the one who was going to die soon, and I was writing a letter to my dad. Then I got distracted by a site on the internet. It was showing sections of space. I was "planning a course". Each time I clicked a direction, a circle with a scene inside it would pop up. I tried to navigate around a section of empty black space that I didn't want to go through, but it was turning out to be a long detour.

***

I was carpooling with a bunch of people that I knew in the dream. I think they included the couple from earlier. There was some discussion which I can't remember, and then I got out of the car and went into a building.

I saw a man with a gun. He had his back to me and was aiming at me with a mirror. I thought, "What am I, Medusa?" I sighed and dodged before the gun went off, landing and rolling onto my stomach. The guy dropped the mirror, so I picked it up and turned it away from myself. The bullets were reflected off the mirror. The mirror wasn't very large, so every time I saw the end of the gun in a slightly different position, I had to move the mirror so that it would reflect the bullet.

There was a long pause between the aiming of the gun and the shooting. That is, everything was moving in slow motion, so it wasn't particularly hard to align the mirror. After a while, I began to get tired. I wondered how long it would be before the bullets would run out. I planned on ducking behind the sofa as soon as he had to take the time to reload. It seemed to go on and on, until finally the bullets ran out. But instead of reloading, the guy pulled out a machine gun. The ridiculousness of it all was almost amusing. I went for the sofa anyways. I woke up in the hallway of my house. I assumed this meant I had "died". I casually informed my mom, and a vague dream continued.

September, 2007 - Stretchy Fingers

I had just had a false awakening and I was sitting on my bed. I did the finger count reality check and became lucid. I grabbed my finger and pulled on it, remembering that people said it was fun to stretch fingers in dreams. It didn't work at first. I noticed that my little finger was extremely short. I had some limited success stretching my fingers. I floated down to the floor and stood in front of the mirror in my room. I experimented with changing the color of my clothes. I managed to change my shirt to a light blue and I made the sleeves longer.

The scene changed with my intention, and I was standing outside my house in the driveway. I looked up and to my left and the sky was incredibly beautiful. It turned from night to day as I watched. It was now early in the morning, and the whole neighborhood was quiet. I started to head down the sidewalk to my right, taking big leaps so that I would go through the air in slow motion for a bit before landing again, almost as if gravity had been reduced. I turned to my left at the corner of the block and crossed the street. By now I was leaping up pretty high. People were just starting to come out of their homes, and there were a couple of kids nearby. I showed off my ability to fly, and they were impressed once they realized that I was defying the laws of physics. I continued on for a short time before I lapsed into a normal dream.

Note: This is a good example of how the majority of my lucid dreams have turned out thus far; I will realize I'm dreaming, but forget whatever fantastic goal I may have set for myself while awake. Instead, I'll get caught up in the intricate details of whatever is around me. Sometimes this leads to lapsing back into a normal dream, losing consciousness of my ability to affect my surroundings. Other times, as in this dream, I end up toying with my abilities and being very easily entertained by the slightest alterations I can make. But there is one goal I rarely have difficulty remembering; I never seem to get tired of flying. And really, it's hard to complain after spending the night soaring amongst the stars.

July 17th, 2007 - Realm of the Immortal Statues

I was in the kitchen. I was holding a random cylindrical object, and it was whispering. I set it inside a cupboard. There was a whole row of cupboards, each one different, and they had an ancient feel to them. There was an antique copper key for every cupboard. Each key had a flat handle with a curved edge and holes cut into it to form intricate designs.

There were voices emanating from the cupboards. I wasn't particularly surprised, just mildly apprehensive. I felt the need to lock them away. I was supposed to go through a set of procedures. I had to turn the key, pull it down, turn it another way, pull it to the side and turn it once more in the opposite direction. It was confusing at first, and the voices accused me of doing it wrong. I was going from the right to left along the row of cupboards. I got the hang of it after I'd locked a few. Although it wasn't just about locking the cupboards. It was a ritual.

By the time I finished I was no longer in the kitchen. The cupboards were all that remained the same in my surroundings. I was in a wide, dusty and clay-like corridor. The place was dimmer than the kitchen had been, lit by candles or torches, perhaps, rather than electrical lights. There were several people around, but the most prominent was a stern woman in her thirties. She spoke to me. I was seeing things from the perspective of an young woman who was new to this place, and rather inexperienced. Apparently I had several tasks assigned to me. I got the impression that the next one would not be fun. I opened the door at the end of the corridor and entered the room, the stern woman following.

There were four sisters of varying ages who were evidently involved in a ritual. I positioned one of the girls in a niche in the corner. Apparently this wasn't right, and the stern woman started giving instructions. My perspective became that of an observer, still connected to my character in a sense, but watching rather than creating actions.

My character - the young woman - moved the remaining three girls to a different spot in the room and stood with them. The stern woman said something about getting a ladder, then started yelling urgently. My character and the three girls beside her turned into white statues, and I switched back into the perspective of the young woman. I felt like I was being pulled and stretched away from my body. There was an highly irritating, oppressive feeling. I saw and heard a long number, which was over a billion. This shocked me, because I knew that it represented the number of people that had gone through this very same thing.

Eventually I found myself in a strange open space with stone floors. It had that "other dimension" feel to it. There were places sectioned off by gates and fences. I saw several pure white people filing into these sections, and they motioned for me to hurry and do the same before the sun went down. When they stood still, they looked like nothing but lifeless statues again.

One statue person came along, apparently to close the gates. The others were warning me not to step on the blue stones that were just past the gates. I got the impression that this dimension was some sort of immortality, only the price was that we had to become statues every night. I suddenly remembered a legend. It told of four girls who were supposed to be sacrificed to such an existence in exchange for an extremely valuable item. A young woman sacrificed herself in place of one of the girls. Then, at the last minute, she tried to run back to the world of the living and died instead of becoming a statue because she went beyond the blue stones. The gates were closing, and I was torn. I felt the urge to run past the gates, despite the cries from the other statues. However, since I knew the story, I forced myself to remain where I was.

***

I was on a bridge, arguing with one of the other statues. We were allowed to wander and explore relatively freely during the day. But not as freely as I wanted to, hence the argument. That's about the time I woke up.

Between April and June, 2007 - False Awakening

I woke up and came downstairs into the family room. I sat down by the computer and decided on a whim to do a reality check to see if I was dreaming. I counted my fingers and I only had four! For some reason this really freaked me out, and I fell out of the chair. As I was sprawled on the floor, staring at my hand, I could hear dramatic music in the background (like in corny movies where the violins play the high glissandos during "scary" moments). I turned to the right and saw my dad standing there with his head behind the curtain for some reason. This made me freak out more and I woke up again. I came downstairs and told my parents about the weird dream and my mom said that I take too long to tell stories. My dad thought it was funny. A few minutes later I woke up for real.

Note: A dream within a dream within a dream. This is a classic example of what the lucid dreaming community refers to as a "false awakening". Basically, it happens when you think you have woken up when you are really still dreaming. This can be particularly frustrating if you were in the middle of a lucid dream, then you assume the dream is over when it isn't. Standard practice to avoid such a scenario is to do a reality check every time you wake up. That way, if you have a false awakening, you can simply continue on with the dream, lucidity intact.

Introduction to Reality Checks

One of the easiest and most common methods of obtaining lucid dreams is reality checks. A reality check is anything you can use to test whether you are dreaming or awake. Popular reality checks include holding your nose closed and seeing if you can still breath, trying to poke a finger through the palm of your hand, counting your fingers and seeing if you get a number other than five, or checking the time more than once and seeing if the numbers change in an illogical way. If things happen the way you would expect (you can't breath with your nose and mouth closed, you can't poke your finger through your hand, you have five fingers on each hand and time progresses linearly), then you're awake. If, however, odd things happen, then chances are you're dreaming.

The idea is to get into the habit of performing a reality check regularly and whenever something seems odd. (My personal favorite is the finger counting reality check; it's easy to do at any point in time, and it doesn't make you look too crazy... at least compared with some of the other ones.) While initially you'll probably just be confirming you're awake, sooner or later your reality test will come up negative.

So if, for example, you find you have six fingers on your right hand, you should realize this means you're in the middle of a dream. If this happens, then by definition you've had a lucid dream! Congratulations! Of course, there are still challenges to overcome from this point, like keeping from getting too excited and waking up, not losing focus and forgetting it's a dream, trying to remember what you wanted to do with the dream in the first place, the skill of dream control itself, etc. But still, it's pretty cool to know you are dreaming at the time, in and of itself, whether it lasts for a moment or the entire dream.


Why does the reality check method work? Well, while we're in the midst of a dream, the logical part of our brain isn't functioning as well as it does when we're awake. A purple unicorn could walk by in a dream, and we may think nothing of it. Or we might think, "huh, that's a bit odd..." then be on our merry way. I can't count the number of times I've thought back on dreams and wondered, "How in the heck did I not realize that was a dream?!" If you're in the habit of questioning what you experience, however, one of those oddities may cause you to wonder and pause just long enough to do a reality check. Then, when the test fails, you know it's a dream. Not because you're thinking clearly and logically, necessarily, just because you've burned it into your brain that having any number of fingers other than five means you're dreaming (or whatever test you've chosen).

Granted, reality checks can be a bit random with their success rates, even with a solid habit. Nevertheless, if you feel like dabbling with the concept of a lucid dream it's an interesting thing to try out. I've had friends I told about the method come back to me with stories of their first lucid dreams, often months later, even though they weren't very serious about trying to get a lucid. They just happened to do a reality check at some point, on a whim almost, and find they were dreaming.

In my mom's case she didn't even have to do a check. She was swimming through the air one day when she suddenly realized it must be a dream. She says it was because dreams had been on her mind a lot when she usually didn't give them much thought, which she attributed to me rambling on about lucid dreaming all the time. One of my friends got a lucid dream the very night after I told her about the finger counting test. In her case I wasn't too surprised. She was known for talking in her sleep and having very good dream recall. Although I have to admit I was a bit jealous; it had taken me weeks of effort to get my first lucid dream.

April, 2007 - Floating in the Living Room

I was upstairs in my room along with my friend AP who was visiting. As we were coming out of the room, I looked at my hand to do a reality check. I had seven fingers. "I'm dreaming." I said, mostly to myself. I asked AP, "How many fingers do you have on your hand?"

"Uh, five." she said as if this were obvious.

"No, count them!"

AP looked at her hand, her expression going from mildly confused to completely perplexed.

I didn't wait to see her reaction beyond that. I glided down over the stairs, repeating to myself that I was dreaming. I floated around the living room going almost as high as the ceiling. My mom's piano student, K, had just come in for a lesson, and I told her and my mom that I was dreaming. They acted as if nothing was happening out of the ordinary. K began complaining about back pain. I started excitedly telling her that she could instantly make the pain go away, and that she could materialize anything she wanted. Just turn around and there would the the item. I babbled on a bit more, then floated away and lapsed back into normal dreaming. I wandered around the house, just walking now. AP came downstairs, and we went into the family room to talk.

Note: Clear thoughts and good focus in dreams, even lucid ones, generally requires a significant amount of skill and practice. Hence why whenever I realize I'm dreaming, I still have to keep reminding myself of the fact periodically. Otherwise, as happened in this example, I'll lapse back into regular dreaming; that is, I'll forget that it's not "real".

January 27th, 2007 - My Friend the Pyromaniac

My friend TF was demonstrating her abilities with fire. She got a ball of fire to swirl so fast that it turned into a controlled tornado. It looked like it was about four feet tall and six feet wide. This demonstration was held in my living room, and my dad watched it with mild interest for a while.

***

We were at a really long dinner table with a bunch of other people present. TF was showing off her pyrokenises on candles by causing the flames to twist. I was impressed with that, as was everyone else that was paying attention, but then I remembered then that she could do a whole lot more than slowly twisting a little flame.

***

We had to catch a train to get away fast, so we went into a section that was like an underground station. We made it onto a strange train. I didn't like the feel of it. The only obvious way out was the way we came in, and I was distinctly aware of the possibility of being trapped. There were lots of orange plastic chairs, about two thirds of which were occupied. TF began talking to a dark haired woman who was near the entrance and looked knowledgeable. TF asked her some questions, and I mostly listened. The woman was describing some vague procedures, which only served to make me more paranoid.

There were chairs lining the walls facing outwards, and another row of chairs down the center facing forwards. The dark haired woman told us to take our seats, and we sat in the center row, TF directly behind me. The last few people sat down, then a man walked in who radiated negative energy. He seemed almost exactly like the evil sorcerer from "The Invaders" dream. He hovered his hands on either side of one of the passenger's head, then moved on to the next one. He continued like this all the way down the row to my left. No one seemed to be bothered by this, but the train was completely silent.

I suddenly realized what was happening; all the passenger's minds were being scanned, one by one. My fears were confirmed. If we were discovered, we would be trapped. Therefore, the only possibility was to somehow keep my mind blank and remain calm. This proved to be exceedingly difficult, because the closer the sorcerer got, the stronger I could feel his negative energy.

By the time the sorcerer reached the back of the center row, I had been fighting an overwhelming feeling of disgust and negativity for too long. The energy started to become physically painful, and my concentration wavered. TF passed the scanning without incident and I regained a blank mind. But it was too late. We were discovered. The sorcerer shouted for the guards. We reacted swiftly, dodging the guards before they entered the room. We ran, chased by the guards who were conveniently identifiable by their black uniforms.

TF and I found ourselves in the midst of a street fair. We navigated frantically through the crowd of locals, who merely continued about their business. The sea was directly to our left until we got to a wider section of side walk, then the bay curved away from us. TF muttered that she wished she was a mermaid in the water so she could go faster. I thought idly that fast though a mermaid would be in the water, it would be completely helpless on land.

The pathway sloped downwards for quite a ways, then flattened out again further on. There were no more people at this point, except for a little girl who looked to be about seven. She was running as well. TF had reached the bottom of the sloped section and I was just behind her. I looked back to see that the girl had fallen down. The guards were approaching. I tried to help the girl, but I couldn't reach her. TF doubled back towards us, using psychokinesis to move the girl within my reach. I caught a hold of her arm. Then TF and I carried the girl, since she couldn't run fast enough to keep up with us.

At some point I said "We're out of our element here!" This reminded me of the analogy about the mermaid out of water. Then I thought, wait a minute, my element is supposed to be wind...

"Let me guess, you can fly." TF said dryly. I was doubtful at the time that I could fly, but I figured I could at least speed up our running, maybe make us lighter. It seemed to be working. After a while I realized that we truly were flying, high above the clouds. I think I overdid the height, though, because we wound up floating around in space. Then we got separated and I drifted very quickly away from Earth. Whoops. I was concerned about how far away it was getting. I tried changing directions and fell into a lopsided orbit. Eventually I saw the moon, and I aimed for it. I worried momentarily that the impact would hurt, but that didn't turn out to be a problem.

When I reached the moon, I got an aerial view of it, like a map laid out below me. I discovered that the government had installed a smart-house system on the moon which could materialize anything. Using this system I started putting in rivers and roads. The moon made some changes of it's own; where there had been an ocean, it sectioned the water off and made it more shallow, saying it wasn't safe otherwise, something about sting rays. It told me that if I hurt myself, I would lose my powers. I put the finishing touches on the rivers by making sure they lined up. Next, I wanted to create a giant structure from sand, to be made more stable later. I tried to figure out how I would go about building it, and the moon piped in, "Hello, I can materialize anything in the universe!"

I got the impression that the moon was offering to build the structure itself, but I wanted something to do, so I asked for a bucket. A bucket appeared by my feet, and I filled it with water from the river. Then I mixed sand in with it. I had a lot of fun playing around with different consistencies. I got a handful of wet sand, then shaped it into a sort of brick shape and lodged it in the ground.

It was starting to look really cool because there were little seashells in the walls. I shaped the walls into a curve, at first thinking of creating a circle, then I changed my mind and began curving it the other way. I ran my finger down the spot where the two curves connected to give it more design, amazed at how easy it was, and began thinking about how I could make a house out of it and wondering where to put the fireplace.

In the meantime, I noticed that I wouldn't have enough room, so I moved the whole thing closer to the river. I still didn't have enough room, so I moved the river. I took a break from building to re-align the rivers. I noticed that the one that I had just moved was very clean and crystal clear, but there were other bodies of water that flowed into it that weren't completely clean. I started blending the colors of the rivers to make it look more realistic. That was probably around the time when I woke up.

Beginning of September, 2007 - Free Will

My dad was on a quest to find the "most hugged" object or place. One would expect it to be a tree or something. But my dad announced that it was a Duncan Donuts. Then I watched a video clip about this, which was clearly a form of publicity. There was a guy talking about how this particular shop had been remodeled and designed. I entered the Duncan Donuts building and looked around. It had the occasional colored floor or ceiling tile that made the whole room look like Wonder bread. I mentally scoffed at how they called that design. The host person tried to convince me to eat some "wonderfully greasy" french fries. I looked at the french fries sitting there in their basket of oil and decided against it.

I sat down at one of the tables and began working at a computer. The computer was instructing me on how to do something. It was for my dad and his coworker. I entered in the information the computer asked for. The program automatically sorted people by their phone numbers. I thought this was strange. Especially since it only showed the first three or four digits, so how could this ordering system be useful to anyone? There was a stamp that I was supposed to use on a print-out so that my dad would get paid. I wondered what would happen if I stamped it twice, so I tried. The stamps cancelled each other out. I had to wipe them off and stamp it again.

***

My mom and I were in a somewhat dark building. I was supposed to clip a dog's nails (it had been human at first), but I was having a hard time. I gave up and began studying the dog's hands. I was looking at my own hands and even toes, trying to figure out what it was that was different. I moved into the next room over to take a closer look at the dog's hands while my mom stayed in the previous room. All of a sudden, I realized what it was. The thumbs were on the outside!!! This shocked me much more than the fact that the dog had hands in the first place. I kept telling my mom that the thumbs were on the outside, trying to get her to understand the importance of this discovery. There was something about the thumbs being on the outside that felt deeply wrong.

I looked back at my own hands, and on an impulse I did a reality check and counted them. I had the wrong number of fingers. I now knew I was dreaming. I informed my mom, then I started to go out the door. I didn't know where I was going, but I wanted to go somewhere else. To fly off somewhere. I hesitated, wondering if my mom was coming, or if I should just go on my own. Then a voice said, "Why are you resisting?" I was confused for a moment, then interpreted this to mean that I should just let the dream go it's own course. But why would I let the dream continue normally when I was lucid? As I nervously wandered back into the room, it occured to me that maybe this could be interesting. In a normal dream, the subconscious is mostly in control, showing messages that I may not be aware of at the time. In a lucid dream, the conscious is mostly in control, and I basically do whatever I feel like. So what if I were to be aware that it was a dream, and listened to the messages instead of ignoring them? A direct connection to my sub-c. This was the first time that I interpreted the voice as being my subconscious.

Even after these thoughts, I was still uneasy. It was a combination of confused guilt, that maybe I'd been frivolous with my previous lucid dreams, and fear that whatever lessons my sub-c wanted me to learn would be hard to bear. There was a shelf full of books. As my mom pulled one out, I thought suddenly, "I can learn in my sleep everything I want to learn while I'm awake!" I (or possibly my mom) began reading from the book. It was titled, "How to control people's will." It reminded me of corporations. And then the meaning of those words sank in like never before. I became very upset, to the point of crying even, saying that the concept shouldn't even exist. I heard my dad's voice, going into rant/lecture mode, "That dog would never survive in the wild." He said something about how the dog's nails would not function properly. "Constantly clinking on glass, arowroro, scratch scratch scratch, aarowowrororo..." I woke up.

Note: The last statement, about clinking on glass didn't make sense right away. I think what it means is that the dog's hands were genetically modified so that it could do something trivial and unimportant. Clinking on a wine glass, like a posh person at a party. But because of the modification to make this relatively unimportant thing possible, the dog didn't have the claws needed to survive on it's own. There are other possible symbols in this dream. The connection between controlling someone's will and the corporations. The metaphor of a person being represented as a dog, who follows orders. Changed so they can do things that are nothing but the whim of another, and which limits their own ability to accomplish what's important to them. Domestication taken to an extreme.

June or July, 2007 - Little Black Dog

I was getting chased by a little black creature, but I escaped or "woke up" and wasn't too worried about it.

***

I was in a parking lot with my parents. I had a little sister. A government agent came in a black car and took her away. He told my mom that if we wanted her back, she would have to provide papers proving she was her mother by September fifth. Then he drove away and my mom panicked. She rushed into a random car and so did my dad. I got in the back seat and looked at the closest row of cars. Our own red Mazda was sitting there with its doors open. I insisted on closing it's doors so that no one would take it. My mom said "All right, but hurry up!"

I got up and ran towards it. I had to pass in front of an oncoming silver car, which looked like it was stopping. Then, at the last minute, they gunned it and came at me. I tried to jump out of the way, but the silver car knocked me down and I hurt my fingers as the wheels passed over them. I got up, yelling at the retreating car angrily, then closed the doors of the red car, which turned out not to be ours after all. Frustrated, I ran back to the car that my parents were in and jumped in quickly. I complained about the car that had knocked me over and hurt my fingers, and my parents got annoyed at me for distracting them when the government had taken my sister. My mom kept muttering about September fifth.

After a period of quiet, I decided to sleep or rest. I wanted to get a dream. When I closed my eyes, I immediately saw a vivid, colorful scene. I opened my eyes. I was amazed that I had seen something so soon. I hadn't gone into a trance or anything! I decided not to worry about why it happened so easily and closed my eyes again, trying not to lose the scene.

I was standing at the top of a hill looking over patches of farm land. There were more hills to the sides, mountains in the distance ahead of me, and the sky was lit with the vibrant colors of the setting sun. The scene made me feel happy and calm. I watched a distant line being cut in a wheat field. It was made by a tractor. Only, what had started out as a straight line became erratic further along, winding back and forth. I watched the tractor for a moment, apprehension starting to kick in. When I looked closer, I saw that no one was driving the tractor, and the key was still in the ignition. I ran down the hill for the tractor, covering the distance sooner than my speed would account for. What happened to the farmer? I wondered, the apprehension getting worse and worse as I remembered the little black creature from earlier. I grabbed the key and pulled it out, stopping the tractor.

I had a substantial amount of fear by now. I had gone from looking at the scene to being in the center of it. And everything seemed so real, from the feel of the small silver key that I was still clutching in my hand to the quick movement I thought I just saw in the shadows. There was a tall, transparent platform nearby. I knew how this story went. I would wait around while there were bits of movement and rustlings and it started to get dark and that sort of thing, then the black creature would jump out and come at me. I would start running and do things like jump up on the platform to try to get away.

I decided to cut things short and went straight for the platform. The creature decided to cut things short also and went straight for me. I barely made it up onto the platform and I pulled my leg up just before the creature could chomp its jaws around it. Up close I could see that the creature looked like a little black dog, only with all the cute removed. A split second later and the dog was on the platform as well. I should have known. Creatures like that are always good at jumping. I scrambled to my feet and ran along the platform, the dog right behind me. It was tearing at my leg and, in a panic, I turned around to kick at it. This was something I had never done to any dream creature before, and I still didn't manage to, as I woke up right then.