Jenos's Garden of Dreams

God forbid I use the roads
My recollection of this dream was a lot better when I woke up, but since I woke up at 2 am I was too tired to write it all down in detail. What I remember is:

I'm walking/wading/swimming on the banks of a pond, holding on to trees a bit thicker than my arm to keep balance. This is all in an attempt to reach the other side of the pond, and I don't know why that's my goal. All I know is that I am in Stephen King's "The Stand" universe, or at the very least the plague is gripping wherever I happen to be. I come upon a kid with brown hair, a bowl cut, wearing glasses, and he's pale. The typical protagonist of an 80's family comedy. He's going the opposite direction as me, and falls into the water (which is brownish, muddy, whatever you like best, dear reader). At this point I realize the water is very warm, lukewarm almost. Very pleasant, actually. As he's trying to pass me he falls into the water, and me, being the optimist that I am, comfort him with the fact that the water is warm, at least. What happens next is lost to me, although I have a fuzzy memory of being on a concrete dock, and seeing some living thing falling over, probably succumbing to the plague.

What I remember next is a famous African American woman, a singer, being forced to sing for somebody, I believe on tv. This singer, I believe, was ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holiday, but I'm not entirely sure. At the end of her song, the camera zooms onto her nose and neck, bot of which are blackening (a symptom of "Captain Trips").

That's all, there was another dream between when I fell back to sleep and woke up again, but I didn't bother to write it down and have forgotten it.

Goal: At the very least, better dream recall

Last night's dream: I only remember one tiny snippet, which was a friend of mine saying "you should shave" while waving to her upper lip.

Personally, I don't think I need to shave

I can't think of a title for this one
Non-Lucid: We (meaning my whole family, no cousins though) are in some kind of futurisic building. Earlier in the dream something really odd and creepy was happening in the building, something out of a horror movie. Though that part of the dream still wasn't a nightmare, and there was also some game/puzzle related things that I remember only vaguely.

The room we're now is the size of a typical fast food joint. The walls are a blueish metal, some parts have a blue/purple light running up it in a tube. In the center of the room is a pit about 7-10 feet deep with a white mist on the bottom and a pink light illuminating the walls of the pit. Standing in the pit are three platforms at the same level of the floor we are standing on, supporting them were thin poles a foot in diameter at most. The floor is the same metal as the walls but instead of a blueish tint it is gray. At the far end of the room are two large windows that take up most of the far wall. There is also a door that leads out to a metal balcony or more likely a deck.

We, that is me, my mother, my grandfather, grandmother, my and on of my aunts, hop over the platforms to my dog who has fallen ill. While The "trying to fix my dog" part of the dream goes on for awhile and isn't worth writing about.

After the dog business is done we observe a severe storm outside. Thunder, cloud to ground lightning, the whole deal. A perfect replica of severe storm. I find myself thinking about what I would take my room if a fire started. I concluded that I would take my Iphone, kindle, my Grado Headphones, and a few other things that I can't seem to recall.

After waking up after a more normal dream which strangely enough was in the same setting with the same people (minus a few) I fell back asleep and into anotherzombie dream I went.

A Swim to the Hospital
Non-lucid: I am on an island off the mainland of wherever. My friend, Ian, has just moved here four some reason or other. The island has some tree coverage but it's mostly grass at the shores, with little sand. In the sands place are rocks and shells (this is a trend for Rhode Island) The water is wavy but flat, similar to how it would look had someone put a giant tv screen playing water on a loop. The water is gray-clear, allowing a clear and unnatural view of the see floor (only the shore part though) It's about midday and as usual instead of a warm light the sun would give off, it's a cold slightly blueish-white as if a colossal fluorescent light hung in the sky.

I am talking to three of my friends. Mike, Ian, and Robert. We desperately want something to do, Mike and Ian in particular are complaining. Somewhere in the conversation we decide that we are going to swim to the hospital. There must be no boats or something.

When we arrive it's early in the night. I'm now rocking a shotgun and my friends have similar weapons. We crawl into the hospital, a narrow hall that quickly turns left with only a few doors and windows on the right. The floor is white tile and walls are painted gray. My friends whisper about how not to shoot on sight because zombies will swarm us. I just have to be and asshole though, and shoot the first one I see (which was immediately after we crawled around the first left turn). We get up and book it, my friends start swimming back to the other island but I stay here.

Strangely the scenery here is less realistic. Instead of grass it's just as if someone put a picture of grass over the ground. The hospital is in the middle of nowhere and it's tiny. But theres no more time to take it in because they are rushing out of the building now. I run into the water hoping they can't swim. But it's not a problem, because behind me are the livid, living hospital staff, zombies that aren't attacking them, and Dr. Cox.

Dream end.

This one is really bugging me. I can't figure out for the life of me whether this is an old dream that has reoccurred or just my brains re-enactment of a movie I saw a long time ago, but it seems so familiar. (and no, it's not I Am Legend)

Zombies and Vampires And Mutants, Oh My!
Non-Lucid: I had remembered more of this dream when I woke up, but I procrastinated and now only remember some scenes. The earliest I can remember is being in a run down house. It was mid-day, with me were 4 or 5 other people, at least two of them were women. At my side stood Roland Deschain (from the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, if you're familiar with it) or some character like him. Inside this old, abandoned shack we made a plan. You see, recently the town had been overrun with some kind of virus, or mutation. The world had moved on and we were getting ready to go with it. We had a plan now.

West of this little dusty rundown shack was a car garage, and west of that was some kind of forge or factory. The gunslinger next to me would run to the car garage and get a car working while the rest of us would run to the factory. and so we did.

The factory turned out to be a small industrial building, it sat in the center of a fairly large, empty plane of pavement surrounded by a brown wooden fence that was seeing it's final days. The four or five of us, two women, one white with short blonde hair, the other black also with short hair that was black. The two or three men I fail to remember. The building has large doors on each side favoring the far side of the building, big enough to let a bus enter. Inside it the floor is flat, and on the left it promptly slopes up onto another level the was 2-3 feet higher that ground level.

As soon as we enter the little building (about the size of a small hangar if that helps you put it into perspective) the horde of zombie-vampire-mutants arrived. We sealed the doors, short haired blonde was yelling orders. The short but wide dust coated windows, were blocked out from the light by the spider-like creatures. Short haired blonde and the black women are now brandishing machine guns (I couldn't tell you the exact type). The door I was facing was immediately blown open despite the barricades placed. one or two people go down, and we book it back to the car garage where the gunslinger waits for us to get in.

I hop in the car, short blonde hair does as well, but the other 2-3 don't make it. The car is dusty, the interior was home to brown leather seats and the rest was black. The windows were almost entirely darkened from the afternoon light as a result of the mutant-zombie-ninja-turtles hugging the crap out of the car. We take off, dream ends.

As a side note, I had a dream that I was on Whose Line Is It Anyway, it was fun and a shame I can't remember it.

I originally wasn't going to post this dream, but I figured I should. I mean, how else am I going to strengthen those neuro-trans-capacitors or whatever you call them?

A Lot of Recycled Material and Unoriginality
Non-Lucid: Starting from the earliest part of the dream I can recall, I am in a lady-friends home. It's not actually her real life home, but a re-used house from an old dream. Her and I have a short conversation or something, I have trouble remembering this part of the dream. The dream (or is it my memory?) skips forward and I am on a roof in a small town. It's like something out of the modern west, with flat-top buildings going along one main road. I am holding a dull but gold CZ, inspired by DayZ I'm guessing. I'm in a skirmish with some unknown person. I move around, get off the building, and am now running away from this little town. But Alas, he shoots me, and I am dead. I "respawn" along a river. And someone is talking to me and telling me I have to find some kind of boat and bring it down to this river where there is a giant deflated red castle, which he/she says will be inflated while I am gone. (this is also recycled from an old dream that was inspired by skyrim). I believe I woke up after that.

It's really odd, all of this, considering I haven't touched any games (with the exception of DayZ) in months.

Moving to a Moon
Non Lucid: So I have finally arrived at one of Saturn's many moons to settle with the rest of the pioneers. It's like an earth mixed with mars, but instead of a small white Moon, there is a giant gas planet with rings and all that nice stuff. The sky is tinted orange, and while it looks like there's a dust storm up there, it's completely clear down here. I'm in my "hut" which looks like something from Red Faction: Guerilla, I ask someone (I don't recall who it was) whether or not I can fly back to earth and rejoin my people (perhaps I haven't thought this journey through, but it sure is lonely up here). I look up to see the sun "rising", it's coming out from behind Saturn, which I can see almost all of, including the rings. But the sun is actually larger than it appears here on Earth, and you can look straight at it (The dust cloud must just enough light, or you know, maybe it's a dream). One day on the moon (meaning day AND night) lasts 40 minutes. A look around at the ground reveals an orange soil with some small weeds covering it, much like my front yard. The terrain (outside of the settlement) is rocky, which leads me to believe that this dream is heavily influenced by the same game I mentioned earlier. I then go for a walk, on my way back as I am passing some car dealership (A car dealer ship on a moon on Saturn that has just been settles? I really need to recognize these dream signs) and am antagonized by two men in suits. They steal 600 of whatever currency is used here and run off. I only got a good look at one of them, who when appeared again on my walk back. He materialized in front of me for around 3 seconds. In a business suit, coarse brown hair, parted on the right (his right) jogging slowly. He looked a lot like Jason Batemen in "The Ex" now that I think about it. He promptly disappeared and I continued on my way home. When I got home I found my house was the scene of a murder. Much of it was blocked off by yellow police tape. I talked to one of the officers (The chief I think) and asked him if there was a lot of mugging going on, he said yes, especially in front of that car dealership. (I wish I could remember the name of it, because it was important. I believe it started with an I or an L)

Regaining Dream Recall
Well it's been awhile, hasn't it? Almost half a year now, I think. Well after my first hardly-successful lucid dream, I gave up. I don't know why. A couple days ago I decided to get back in the game, and stared keeping a private journal (you know, in the waking journal section), but I digress.

So here I am, and here you are. If you've read this far, then boy do I have a treat for you. That's right, you get to read about my snippet of a dream.

I'm following my dad along this road. The road doesn't exist in the real world, but in the dream world it's near my house. I'm following my dad somewhere, and take a look to my right. There's a big lake. Water reacts weirdly in my dreams apparently. Instead of only parts of the water reflecting light (like you see in a pool) that whole damn thing does, as if the sun were in the water. We go a further for a while, I don't really remember much until the part where we turn around. We walk by some winding street that goes up the side of a mountain (a mountain in Rhode Island? hat should have put me right into a lucid) on this street that are big houses, twice, maybe three times the size of mine. One is a beige/pinkish color, and kind of a medieval style. The house closest to the road that we're walking on is a pale blueish color, with a hint of purple. I make a remark to my dad about how rich you would ave to be to live in these houses, or something like that. I look to the left, and the once huge lake is now but a small pond next to a house that is more appropriately sized. We walk further and I turn around to notice a fat dog trailing me. It's a golden retriever, and it looks tired. (I actualyl don't know when this part occurred, but I know that it did). I pull out a map and see that the pale blueish-purple building that we had passed is in fact a mirror emporium! My dad make some joke about my saying that only the rich live there or some hooblah like that. We continue and take a right onto another street and the memory of the dream fades.

Well that turned about to be a bit more than a snippet, didn't it? Guess my dream recall hasn't suffered too much.

The Other Other Guy
Non-lucid: I am in a police department. My perspective of a person watching a movie, I am watching what seems to be a cop/detective comedy. The (I assume) Captain is shouting something about stolen money and a dirty cop. He and a partner rush to their car. Fast forward a bit and the Captain is on a runway facing a plane. He's slams his feet on the gas rushing towards the plane, but as he comes closer he see's that it's really a helicopter. Or in other words, it's not the guy he's after. The dream cuts to some tropical island, I see a plane landing in a different airport. The end. In hindsight, it wasn't very funny.

Multiple fragments
Non-lucid: I'm next to a lake with some people, I don't know them. In the sky is some type of stealth fighter. I don't know how I know, but I know that someone I know (and dislike very much) is piloting the fighter. I figure it is some sort of test flight. The fighter drops something and then falls out of the sky. It lags back and forth as if time were skipping beats.

Campaign
Non-Lucid: I'm looking at a map. The map shows somewhere between 3-5 objectives with along with paths to them. A man is shouting orders. The commander probably. He tells us who's going where, and how. After he covers the final objective, he rushes outside. It's time for a drill. An alarm goes off, we all keep close to the fence, and rush to the dock where a boat (an old colonial looking boat, wooden with a lot of sails and all that) is waiting. The dream skips a beat, we are back at the camp where we covered the objectives. The alarm goes off, which means it's time for action. We grab our guns an go (the guns are all m16's) As I'm rushing along the fence I notice three unfamiliar soldiers on the roof of a nearby building. The one in the middle shoots twice, nobody notices and nobody is hit. When I get to the last part in the path (this is right before the docks with the boat, there's also some kind of generator here) I somehow lose my gun. We reach the boat, people are crowded on as the commander is screaming at them. How can I board the boat, go to battle, and survive without a gun? I think oh no, not again. (This leads me to believe that I've had this dream before, along with the dejavu feeling of it) I run back to that part in the path, there's a gun on the ground, but it's no m16. It's some kind of bolt action rifle (Looks something like a Mosin Nagant) Whatever, I think, A gun is a gun, this will do. But then something clicks, this is the same gun that on of those soldiers had on the roof. That means one of those soldiers on the boat is a an enemy. I quickly go to tell the commander. As I'm telling him I have a weird "Here's what happened" Monk moment. When I finish the dream skips a beat again. The boat is gone and someone is pulling on a rope that goes into the water. He is struggling, and I go to help him out. It's some kind of sea monster. I wake up.


Bummer, I would have really liked a war dream, instead it keeps ending in sea monsters.

After working out (more intense than I usually do) I decided to take a nap. I also decided to try and hit 2 birds with one stone and attempt another WILD.

WILD Attempt #7
I lie down, turn on my white noise app (which is turning out to be very helpful) and close my eyes. I remember how much trouble I have with concentrating on my eyelids and throw a hat on over them for extra measure. After 15-20 minutes something is happening that hasn't happened before. My legs feel like they are floating off into the air. My arms quickly follow. Could I finally have reached sleep paralysis. I see some kind of picture in front of me. It looks like a glowing blue spiders web (Not the round kind, a more disorderly web, random patterns and all the wonderful stuff). My heart starts beating hard, not fast, but hard. I feel like my heart has moved right up into my head, it is literally pulsating. Everything calms down after about 20-30 seconds. Am I in a dream now? Probably not, I can hear the white noise and feel that hat around my head. I may as well check though. I take the hat off, plug my nose and breathe. Alas, I'm awake.

Considerable progress though

I don't remember much, because I woke up and went back to sleep after, so the memory is minimal, but I'm almost positive it happened!

DILD Without Trying
I'm lying in my bed when I just randomly remember to do a reality check. I count my fingers, (I don't remember the results) pinch my nose and breathe... hold the phone... Try again. and again. I'm dreaming! I rub my hands together as that's supposed to help make things vivid. Didn't work, I get up and try to spin. But alas, that is where I lose memory. I must have either gone non-lucid or just forgot. But now I know I can do it!

WILD Attempt #6
Awake: I decide to take an afternoon nap. I do not use white noise or any other anchor, but I do put on a winter hat to keep my eyes from opening. I lie down in my normal position and count my breaths. One hundred and something breaths later I drift off to sleep without knowing it. I guess white noise will be necessary.

WILD attempt #5
Awake: I look over to my alarm clock. 3:30 A.M?! I was supposed to be awake at 1:00 A.M. I roll on my back, I'm not wide awake, but I'm not groggy either, maybe I should try a WILD anyway. I do. I turn on my NatureSpace app, I put it on infinite ocean, and lie on my side.
HH and HJ: The first sign that I'm getting somewhere are the hypnic jerks. I get these around my legs, and a couple times on my back. I lie for awhile longer. My thoughts dwell a little but never enough to get me out of it. After awhile something happens that has never happened before. I see these white rings suddenly fly towards me, they're very blurred, like the green lights in my previous HH, but they also give me a light headed feeling. It's as if I'm flying through them. These go away and I don't feel anything except the occasional jerk. I'm still without the numbness and heaviness i get in my legs and arms. I think I need to relax more and meditate less.
Awake: After 33 minutes I call it a quits and go to non-lucid sleep.

Some kind of Paradise
Non-Lucid: I'm walking on a stone road. With me are Natasha (friend) and Charlie (Not so much my friend), there may have been someone else but I paid them no attention. It's an absolutely beautiful summer day out, but where we are I don't know. It's some Skyrim-esque terrain, lot's of mountains, but no snow. Just perfect, my dreamland. We come across a small house, and would you believe, it's that god damn Russian/gypsy lady again! Only a glimpse, and I'm not 100% sure it is here, but I think it is. (I sure hope she isn't my dream sign). Next to a house is a huge change in the path. 90 degrees to be exact, no problem though. We climb up it without a sinch, except for me at the top. Charlie offers me his hand to help me up (in real life I would get over the ridge easily but in the dream I was struggling) I reach for it but he doesn't give it to me. Natasha doesn't notice, and after a minute he helps me up. It's a beautiful sight up here, To our left is a small bay, to our right, mountains and plains and ahead, ocean. There's one lone sailboat in the bay, and the water is calm. My subconscious decides it wants charlie gone, he's out of the dream. Me Natasha, and this other guy (I believe to be Natasha/Charlies friend Connor, nice guy) lie down. I crack a joke, they laugh, and she come up with some witty response. For some reason (Maybe we were called by someone) we get up and hop off the little cliff we're on and walk back the way we came. I wish this dream could have lasted longer, but that's where it ends.

Look out below!
Non-Lucid: I'm in the passenger seat. It's night time and the driver is speeding down a street in the city. "He is driving like a nut" I think to myself. Ahead is a highway entrance, the driver hits the side of it (those large cinder barriers are on the side) and we fly off into the sky. It's like some kind of physics bug from GTA. I ask him what happening to his car. No response. I repeat myself. Still no response. We land in the river. The guy finally says he will call emergency services. I panic and ask what river this is. Is there a waterfall in it? He says yes, oh man, we're screwed, game over man. Then this natural river suddenly transforms into some kind of theme park river. I jump onto the side where there are wooden boards holind up some images for people on the other side to see. I climb down to the end of the ride, my friend and the police are waiting for me. The dream ends.

Persuasive Monsters
Non-lucid: I'm in a library. I'm taking some kind of lesson, it must be with computers because we all have laptops. The guy sitting in front of me is Connor (Different Connor, I've gotten into physical fights with this one in the past). He turns around and says something, I get angry and retort. One thing leads to another and we are both steaming, both ready to throw the first punch. The teacher, a balding guy with a soul patch, asks me to move. I go to a booth in the corner, there are some other girls there. Little did I know that these girls are vampires! They throw me some pitch about how great it is to be a vampire, and all of the cool things you can do. Time zooms forward, I'm in a hallway. Two of the vampire girls are there along with a normal human. It's some induction ceremony, all you have to do it chew a jawbreaker sized piece of gum and a smoked chocolate doughnut (My Subconscious is a weirdo). The human girls put the gum in her mouth to reveal grotesque, black teeth with huge fangs. Halfway through the doughnut I remember that I don't want to be a vampire. The two vampire girls go off about a guy who once didn't finish the ceremony like me, and that now he cries blood everyday. At this point my alarm goes off (thank god)