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    CanisLucidus

    Midway

    8 Comments
    by
    CanisLucidus
    , 09-18-2013 at 09:32 PM (881 Views)
    This LD was from the morning of 9/13/2013.

    Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

    Lucid #146: Midway

    I'm a high school student walking around near an open field where a girl is practicing her triple jump. She has an odd technique where she bounces up to the line before taking her first jump, so I copy her. It's amazing! Each jump goes for about 10 feet and I go flying along the field this way. I had no idea technique mattered so much.

    I walk toward the school, entering a classroom where students are working on art projects. I fall in with a group of people I think that I know and work on cutting cloth into interesting shapes. At the end, I wrap a golden key in cloth and throw it in the garbage, expecting the other students to somehow understand that they're supposed to fish it out. Nobody gets it, though, and suddenly we're all hustled out of the classroom, the golden key still in the garbage. I'm filled with teen angst, upset that nobody understands me.

    The dream jumps to me outside of the school at night, ready to sneak in and rescue the golden key from the trash. There's some kind of huge event going on, though, and everywhere people are walking freely in and out of the school's front door. I pass by other kids that I (falsely) think I know, as well as lots of well-dressed adults I'm unfamiliar with. As I walk through the school, it becomes a stadium. There's something extremely loud going on in there now and I think that it's a stock car race.

    I'm thinking this is odd when the scene changes and I find myself outside near the coast.     I have to be dreaming. I'm walking with a group of 3-4 other people, at least 2 other teenage boys and at least 1 teenage girl. I recall that I'm not actually a teenager anymore IWL but I feel like I'm still inhabiting the body of my younger self.

    Off to the right I see a faraway fairground and wonder if it's the same fairgrounds I saw several dreams back. Ahead in the distance I see an aircraft carrier that looks like USS Midway. One of the guys in the group says, "Is that the USS [some word, maybe gallant?]"

    I correct him: "No, that's the Midway." As we walk toward it, the edges of Midway rock up and down as if she were traveling through very rough seas. I look over to the left and see a hilly landscape dotted with houses. As the houses fall into my peripheral vision, they start turning and rocking as well. I experiment with this by staring at several different houses, as well as turning my eyes back to Midway. Whatever I stare directly at stays still but objects toward the edge of my vision rock gently back and forth.

    "Do you see that? Do you see the way that everything's rocking, or am I the only one that sees it?" The DCs mutter noncommitally. "What's this like for you?" I ask. I'm planning to question them further about whether they truly "see" things, but     the dream fades before I can really get these questions out.

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    Tags: fair, key, ocean, school, young
    Categories
    lucid

    Comments

    1. fogelbise's Avatar
      Asking questions is something I need to put in my goals. I would love to ask, "what am I supposed to be doing?" to see what DCs say. I am curious if it will be something dream related or waking life related.

      BTW, does it always get more quiet around the forums after summer? Perhaps due to some of the younger members (and maybe some teachers here) going back to school.
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    2. Highlander's Avatar
      When I read up to the stadium part I thought 'A ha, I know what's coming next - The Collosseum!'
      It is just a pity your awareness didn't trigger there before the scene change and lucidity.

      Cool LD BTW.
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    3. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Quote Originally Posted by fogelbise
      Asking questions is something I need to put in my goals. I would love to ask, "what am I supposed to be doing?" to see what DCs say. I am curious if it will be something dream related or waking life related.

      BTW, does it always get more quiet around the forums after summer? Perhaps due to some of the younger members (and maybe some teachers here) going back to school.
      Oh yeah, DCs and their reactions can be an endless source of amusement (and even, occasionally enlightenment.) I love the idea of asking the DC to show you what you're supposed to be doing with the dream because it leaves things so open-ended. Some of the coolest dream content comes when you give your subconscious a nice bit of blank canvas like that to work with.

      Good question on lighter traffic after back to school! I would think so. I've been away a lot myself working way too much and doing back to school stuff for the kiddos. Hopefully it'll be lightening up soon because I still have two LDs I haven't journaled yet!

      Quote Originally Posted by Highlander
      When I read up to the stadium part I thought 'A ha, I know what's coming next - The Collosseum!'
      It is just a pity your awareness didn't trigger there before the scene change and lucidity.

      Cool LD BTW.
      Ha ha, thanks... yeah when I looked back on this one I really wished that I'd become lucid a little earlier. That school/stadium was also loaded with interesting dream characters. I also hope that, like you said, I would have the presence of mind to do the Colosseum task!

      No way to fix things now except to have more LDs...
      fogelbise likes this.
    4. NyxCC's Avatar
      Really cool dreams! I loved the non-ld where you left that golden key and then wanted to sneak in and rescue it.

      I recall that I'm not actually a teenager anymore IWL but I feel like I'm still inhabiting
      This got me thinking, have you ever dreamed yourself to be your younger self, like high school or maybe even younger? And I mean your real self because I know I get the occasional person shift, people I've never seen before, a woman, an Asian guy, even a weird midget-like kid, but not really me in the past. My classmates also seem to be updated to some adult version of themselves.

      As the houses fall into my peripheral vision, they start turning and rocking as well. I experiment with this by staring at several different houses, as well as turning my eyes back to Midway. Whatever I stare directly at stays still but objects toward the edge of my vision rock gently back and forth.
      Very interesting effect. Have you considered trying this again sometimes?
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    5. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      Thanks, Nyx, the golden key thing sort of captured my imagination too! The thing that's really cool about non-lucids is that since I don't know it's a dream I roll with the premise a lot longer and things develop in interesting/unexpected ways. Some people are good at doing this while lucid, too, but I'm more of a "get really excited, fly around, and try to remember TotM" kind of guy!

      You know, it's rare but I really think that in this dream I was younger me. I was dressed more like I dressed when I was a kid, felt younger, a little less comfortable in my own skin... and just sort of felt vaguely like I felt when I was a teenager. I'm trying to recall the last time I was any younger than that... if it's happened, it's not coming immediately to mind. But it doesn't seem to be often that I relive my youth!

      As for the rocking effect, I have not thought to try it again! It was slightly disconcerting and I had this vague worry that dreams were always like this and I had just never noticed. Of course, that is no doubt what made the effect so persistent in this dream!

      Doing it again willfully might actually be a good way to put it out of my head as something that "just happens to me" because, of course, in the end it's all ours!
      NyxCC likes this.
    6. NyxCC's Avatar
      You know, it's rare but I really think that in this dream I was younger me. I was dressed more like I dressed when I was a kid, felt younger, a little less comfortable in my own skin... and just sort of felt vaguely like I felt when I was a teenager. I'm trying to recall the last time I was any younger than that... if it's happened, it's not coming immediately to mind. But it doesn't seem to be often that I relive my youth!
      That's really cool you got to be a younger version of yourself. It's really interesting how we mix old and new like we are in high school, sometimes even taking tests or seeing people that are long gone, but we don't get back to the younger versions of ourselves. I am pretty sure everything's neatly stored in our subson though. Maybe one day, after years of practice we would be able to call back if we want to some orderly memories in an ld the same way we strive to make those TOTY visualizations come to life.

      As for the rocking effect, I have not thought to try it again! It was slightly disconcerting and I had this vague worry that dreams were always like this and I had just never noticed. Of course, that is no doubt what made the effect so persistent in this dream!
      I am not quite sure what made you worry, for me it might be destabilization. Apart from that I think it is a cool effect, and from your strange description in bold, I get the feeling that you might have stumbled upon on the surface of something interesting. Or it might be a false memory and then it's just a cool trick? At any rate it would be nice to see if there is any consistency in results.
      CanisLucidus likes this.
    7. CanisLucidus's Avatar
      That's really cool you got to be a younger version of yourself. It's really interesting how we mix old and new like we are in high school, sometimes even taking tests or seeing people that are long gone, but we don't get back to the younger versions of ourselves. I am pretty sure everything's neatly stored in our subson though. Maybe one day, after years of practice we would be able to call back if we want to some orderly memories in an ld the same way we strive to make those TOTY visualizations come to life.
      Yeah, that's a good point... it's very common for me to relive exaggerated aspects of the high school/college experience (tests, final exams, making terrible scheduling mistakes, forgetting to go to class, etc.) But it is a little less common for me to be literally that younger version of myself. That made this dream a little more interesting.

      I agree that this stuff is all in there and dreaming lets you access it, although usually through a very odd lens. I've wondered whether there was a way to gain control of the dream in such a way that you can use it to more directly access memories as you truly remember them happening, but I've never succeeded at this in any way that I can recall. It's literally a skill where I have zero practice or even a concept of how to improve at it. Is it something you've thought much about?

      I am not quite sure what made you worry, for me it might be destabilization. Apart from that I think it is a cool effect, and from your strange description in bold, I get the feeling that you might have stumbled upon on the surface of something interesting. Or it might be a false memory and then it's just a cool trick? At any rate it would be nice to see if there is any consistency in results.
      Strange, isn't it? While I was seeing the effect in-dream, I became worried that dreams always do this and I had just never noticed it before. But from the sobriety of waking life, I can clearly see that this visual artifact was just one of those funny dream things that happens. NOT some kind of permanent effect in every dream I'd just somehow never noticed before!

      It's strange the things that I'll believe when I'm dreaming. In dream I really felt insecure about the dream geography looking so unstable and shifty. Very weird mental process going on there for sure!
      NyxCC likes this.
    8. NyxCC's Avatar
      I agree that this stuff is all in there and dreaming lets you access it, although usually through a very odd lens. I've wondered whether there was a way to gain control of the dream in such a way that you can use it to more directly access memories as you truly remember them happening, but I've never succeeded at this in any way that I can recall. It's literally a skill where I have zero practice or even a concept of how to improve at it. Is it something you've thought much about?
      I have thought about it and even planned to do it a few times, but you know how long that to-do in ld list can get. I am pretty sure that it is possible, yet I have no idea how to initiate it. But then again, I have to give it a try quite a number of times before getting the hang of it. One of the meditations I do consists of going back to old memories, reliving, analyzing and letting go of the experience. I was thinking that dreaming and attention to detail during dreams might actually help me relive these in more detail or even call back those memories during the dream where you are already in your subcon. Still many years of practice needed, I am afraid. Well, if that ever works out, it will be interesting to see if one can reconstruct an entire memory with the correct description and then look at a forgotten photo to see if elements were on the right place.

      It's strange the things that I'll believe when I'm dreaming. In dream I really felt insecure about the dream geography looking so unstable and shifty. Very weird mental process going on there for sure!
      Another thing that is very fascinating in dreams is the power of some false memories. Some are so convincing, not just distracting but seemingly true stories that you could swear are real. I remember having this high awareness lucid-like dream where there was some memory-like info about my great grand dad and his workshop. It left me guessing to this day whether there was some truth to it or not. And it wasn't very concrete either, more like a feeling of an explanation than facts.

      But then, if dreams were more straight forward we would easily get bored. Instead, we have layers upon layers of unexplored territory which makes it so exciting!