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.