non-lucid

After lucid dreams (and sometimes after nonlucids): What are those blobs of colour I see in my vision? They resemble crumpled wads of paper or origami. They appear just before the dream ends and persist several seconds into wakefulness, clearly visible as I lie in bed. If I close my eyes tightly they're still there. Once it was purple and white on a violet background (viewed through a rectangular window surrounded by blackness). It vaguely resembled a neuron or a cancer cell. That one was clearly dimensional and floated in 3D space. I could study its contours and still remember its general shape. This morning it looked like an orange-and-black walnut. I fancied I was seeing my optic nerve. That's my best guess.

Does anyone else see these things? What is it about the dream state (or hypnagogic state) that makes them appear? Is this related to the "sparkling void" I hear lucid dreamers talking about or is that something different?

INT. TATTOO PARLOR – DAY

I have a consultation with an artist for a small tat on my upper arm depicting Niblet from Sesame Street. I'm ambivalent about it and have promised myself not to commit today, but the artist is getting me closer and closer to closing the deal. There are three artists on staff to choose from and the cheapest job would be $90 plus tax. I manage to wake up before he applies the needle and for once I'm actually glad for a dream to end.

EXT. RESTAURANT - DAY

I discuss lucid dreaming with my friend, Brooklyn, mentioning dream control. "For instance," I explain, "If I were having a lucid dream right now, I could say, 'Let me see a green blimp in the sky with a giraffe in the gondola,' and it might appear--maybe."

Brooklyn seems mildly impressed. "Do you have to pray to make such things happen?" she asks.

"Well, I just sort of talk to myself--to my subconsciousness," I tell her.

[Next time, demonstrate the reality check, please!]

Two or three hypnagogic experiences while falling asleep. The sensation that I'm walking and my foot slips out from under me. Another "partial OBE?"

Also I imagine I see the purple window in the void again, momentarily, with vague content.

INT. CHILDHOOD HOME - DAY

A white gerbil is sick and dying from starvation. I hold her in a white towel. She struggles in my hand at first but then becomes calm. I place her on a shelf in a closet filled with torn strips of toilet paper.

INT. CHILDHOOD HOME - DAY

I'm reading an old ufo book that has been reprinted in a nice, leather-bound edition. But suddenly the front cover comes off and I see the broken binding. I plan to glue it back together.

INT. CHURCH - DAY

A breakfast of pastries, cheesecakes, and cobblers on two right-angled tables with white tablecloths invites a crowd of diners. They mill about indecisively while women stand ready to dish out the food with plastic spatulas.

A white inclined plane appears in space. I rest on it. Suddenly it turns on a hinge. My astral body falls with that familiar jolt. Still conscious enough to self observe, i smile in my half sleep, recognizing what just happened: "Ah yes, that might have been an OBE!"

INT. HALL IN CHILDHOOD HOME - DAY

I am Donald Trump's choice for Secretary of State (the Exxon-Mobil exec). I'm at the cork board discussing a list of other candidates for Cabinet posts with my future boss. We point and gesture at the list. I see my sleeve cuffs. The shirt i wear under my blazer is dark blue, almost black (like an SS uniform?!?!?!)

EXT. HALIFAX - NIGHT

I watch the snowfall in a vivid city street scene--in full, overcast daylight...but it's 12 AM ADT (Atlantic Dream Time). First Halifax dream since moving here.

The following was--unfortunately but interestingly--a non-lucid dream.

I'm talking to my brother [who is also interested in LD in real life; we recently chatted about it]. I excitedly tell him an idea for something to do in a lucid dream: "Wouldn't it be cool to travel back to the time of Christ and talk to the scribes and Pharisees at the temple in Jerusalem!"

A non-lucid from earlier this year:

When you live in Canada but suddenly find yourself in Lenin's mausoleum in Moscow and a hole in the ceiling opens and they lower a Vostok down with cables and there's old Vladimir Ilyich in the capsule, alive and well, wearing a spacesuit and winking at you through a porthole...it's a pretty safe bet that you're dreaming.

I wanted to post a funny false awakening from last summer:

I found myself wishing i were lucid. "If i were lucid," i thought to myself, "what would i do? I know! I would be Marty McFly in Back To The Future, playing the guitar at the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance!"

So i started to play air guitar. Just then my sister entered the room (in the dream) and i felt embarrassed (as we often are when caught dancing and singing alone). I excused myself and went to another room, seeking privacy so i could continue practicing.

Then i awoke and found to my dismay that it had been a dream. I had even thought about lucidity within a dream and still didn't think to run an RC!

Take-home lesson: Use any and everything as a cue to RC. Every thought about lucidity should contain a parenthetical, "Is this a dream now, by the way?"

Being Marty, incidentally, was a spontaneous goal, not a preplanned agenda. And not a bad one, if i may say so myself. I'll have to use it some night for real when i really do achieve lucidity.

EXT. LIMA, PERU - DAY

Riding in family van (tan '84 Chevrolet) from childhood. It's on autopilot on the highway (like the new Google cars). I don't trust it, but so far no accidents. A light aircraft uses the onramp for a runway and passes us but then lands and transforms into a car and drives ahead of us.

When you see your childhood family vehicle in your dream, you know it's a dream, c'mon. Especially when it was reported stolen and abandoned in Arizona twenty years ago.

Too lazy to write the 3-4 other dreams in this long weekend night of sleep.

Now if only the drunks across the parking lot would shut up on weekends before 4 AM, maybe i could schedule my WBTB's myself, thank you very much! (Or maybe i should be grateful to them for the alarms?)