Recent DJ Posts

Ritual: I had time to sleep in this morning so I was motivated to get lucid. Went to bed at midnight and woke at 6am to feed the cat. Didn't do a full WBTB, but took a few supplements (alpha-g, choline, l-theanine) plus a tiny amount (between 1-2mg) of very old galantamine. I lay down on my back to delay sleep onset and practiced progressive relaxation, a few SSILD cycles, and counting. Couldn't count very high (usually not past six, my focus is terrible these days) but clearly noticed onset of hypnogogic imagery and managed to put in a number of rotations before falling into dreamless sleep. When I awoke after a few minutes (guaranteed if I fall asleep on my back), I turned on my right side and let myself fall asleep normally, feeling adequately primed and hoping for the best. This "kitchen sink" approach has pretty much become my standard and despite being really haphazard has a decent success rate, often resulting in WILDs. This time I had an NLD or two that I don't remember well, then the following semi-lucid that turned into a DILD.

SLD: I am on a beach. All is not well: there are what look like tiny floating islands approaching from across the sea, and on each one stands a little stone tower and a menacing-looking figure in black armor with a horned helmet. The armored figures to be using the islands as transportation. Though not quite lucid, I remember that I have certain broad powers in this place, so I walk along the beach until I spot a couple empty islands, and try to summon one toward me. It turns into a little white sailboat and promptly sinks. I try to summon the second one, and the same thing happens. So much for island hopping. I turn right and continue to walk along the waterfront.

Something seems oddly familiar about this place—I've been here before, haven't I? I note the urban architecture up ahead, the sprawl of a city just past the beach and I'm distinctly reminded of a particular dream I had once, years ago now. It was here, I am sure of it, though this corresponds to no earthly place. I don't remember much about that earlier dream, except that it started in one of the apartment buildings a few blocks from the beach and then I went down to the parking lot, but saw the beach in the distance. [I think I actually found it, an entry from 12/29/13, but I misremembered the order of events: I was in the parking lot initially, then dropped by the beach before going up to the apartment.]

Various people are wandering around the beach, and a distinctive figure approaches. He is a thin old man with stringy, longish grey hair, carrying three lidded boxes in different colors, each about eighteen inches square. "What do they call this bay?" I ask him. "Sigismund?" he suggests, then modifies it. "Or Sigisroot?" He seems uncertain. I am about to ask the name of the city, but we are interrupted by the approach of a huge wave. We try to scramble up the beach but don't make it in time, and the wave crashes over us. I have to struggle against the pull of its wake, meanwhile trying to reach around to find the old man, to help him if possible. I grab someone's hand in the water, but it turns out to be a short, dark-haired woman. After helping her to shore, I come across the old man again on the beach. He has made it to safety, but lost two of his boxes. I feel partly responsible for the loss of his boxes, so I go back to the water to look for them. I locate the boxes but their contents have spilled. Apparently they contained cassette tapes, so I dredge as many as possible out of the water and wet sand, restoring them to one of the boxes. After I've grabbed as many as I can find, I return the boxes to the old man.

FA-DILD: The dream resets, perhaps a half-waking, and I am in my house again. I start reviewing what just happened, and write down the name of the bay, both variations—not sure I realized at the time I was writing in a dream notebook. As I think over the events of the dream, I realize I must have been semi-lucid at the point where I was trying to summon the islands and then recognized the setting from prior dream. I reason that if I was semi-lucid then, I must be actually lucid now. Dream logic is terrible, but this time it did the trick—thinking about lucidity made me recognize that I was still dreaming. Since I was back in my house, I decided to do the TOTM of walking through the wall. I had interpreted "my room" to mean the bedroom, so I head in there and immediately turn left to look at the wall. I'm pleased and surprised to find an ample stretch of wall between the door and bookcase (surprised because in WL there is no free wall space in the room at all, to the point where I thought I would have to do the task by going into the closet!) Instead, the dream has obligingly provided sufficient room for me to stand in front of the wall, so I press both hands flat against it and concentrate. The wall resists the pressure at first, so I increase it, then watch as my right hand starts to sink into the surface. The wall crumbles under my hand like weak plaster with an impressively realistic texture and sensation. As I continue to push, a whole section about two feet wide dislodges and falls inward under my right hand, and then I push my whole body forward and break through the rest.

I find myself in a cramped, closet like space, empty yet messy somehow, like it was poorly constructed—for instance, there are exposed 2x4s at odd diagonals. There is no visible way out, and I remember back to a time I was exploring the use of mirrors as portals and got stuck in a labyrinth of empty rooms that became ever smaller and more claustrophobic. [The dream I was thinking of occurred on 4/17/14, and the earliest experience of this kind I recorded on 12/18/10]. Simply recognizing the dream's tricks gives me the confidence not to be waylaid by them again, so I turn left and push through that wall too. Unsurprisingly, I am in an even smaller, darker, and more cramped space. I remind myself to remain optimistic and keep pushing forward with the expectation of getting out. I push through a couple more dark, tiny, empty spaces and then find myself in one that is different. It feels like an actual closet, with coats. What catches my eye is the style of those coats: they remind me of the cheap winter coats we wore in the 1970s, made of smooth synthetic cloth in drab colors and augmented with wide fake-fleece collars. I push through the coats and finally tumble free into an outdoor space.

It's one of those transitions that are so striking in dream. I had been struggling in narrow claustrophobic space with poor visibility, and suddenly everything has changed: I'm in open space, the air is clear and fresh, the light is bright, colors are vivid, my vision is sharp, and I feel a surge of ebullience. I remind myself that it is worth it, all the trouble I go to over dreaming, even if dream isn't always cooperative, because of experiences like this. I even notice that little flutter in my solar plexus that I associate with deep dream.

I move forward, on my hands and knees at first. I am at the base of a steep hill, and there are a number of animals sitting on the hillside, placidly watching me, including several ape-like creatures. As I crawl through the grass, I note the distinct texture of it: it might not be grass at all, actually, but some kind of ground cover with stiff, spiny stalks that flatten rather than bend under my hands. When I get to my feet, I see that a number of these stalks have actually adhered to my palms. They look like black tubes about three inches long and only a couple millimeters across, hollow, with a longer thin hair sticking another inch out the end. I try to pluck one out and it won't come off. I have the impression that even if I manage to pull off the outer tube, the hair will be left behind. It occurs to me to wonder if this explains the ape-like creatures, which seem unusually intelligent and anthropomorphic: did other people come here before me, and end up with so many of these hairs attached to their skin that they became furry?

I consider flying, but decide not to: I'm really interested in this place, and flying would destabilize me from this particular scenario, if not the dream itself. So I continue walking forward on foot, reminding myself both literally and figuratively to stay grounded. As I reach the end of the flat terrain at the bottom of the steep hill, I look up at the animals arrayed on the upper terraces, who are still quietly watching me. What should I ask them? I never seem to get anywhere asking the names of things, so I decide to be clever, and call up to them: "What would be a really interesting question for a newcomer to ask?" No answer. I repeat myself, but still no reply, so I start climbing up toward them.

When I reach the upper terrace, things get complex. I can't remember what passes between me and one of the creatures, who is more man-like now, before he pulls a knife on me—though it is unclear if he he is using the knife to threaten me or the grizzled, older-looking apeman creature who is sitting to his left. I wrest the knife from his grasp, which knocks him off balance. He nearly falls off the cliff (which suddenly seems a lot steeper now, almost vertical, than when I climbed up it a moment before) and grabs on to my waist to save himself. I check my moral compass and find that I feel no compulsion to save him—something about his attitude puts me off—so I peel his arms away and he falls to the base of the cliff, presumably to his death. The elder creature has retrieved the knife, which is now lying at his feet, and I go over to look at it.

When I pick up the knife, I find it to be a wide, cleaver-like implement made of thin cardboard with silver foil stuck to it. There is writing on the cardboard side, and I read through a whole confession, apparently by the creature I just sent to his death. The text describes an elaborate scheme that involved getting me pregnant and then killing me after the child was born, because it concludes, "I won't regret killing you when I see your features in the face of our infant." I find this repulsive and it resolves my lingering doubts about whether letting him fall was the right thing to do. I ask the elder creature if I can keep the knife, and he doesn't speak, but I take his silence as assent. I notice that there is a second knife on the ground, made of roughly-forged steel or iron and elegantly curved like a viking blade (the handle a loop of the same metal), that resembles like the one I wrested away initially, so I swap out the mock-up I'm holding for the real blade, and walk forward on the hilltop.

I encounter another man, this one entirely human in appearance except for a strange feature: his face is completely wrapped in grimy white bandages, leaving only a bit of forehead and his hair explosed. The bandages are thicker over his left eye, but seem to adhere closely to his right—I can see the shape of the eye bulging under them—so I conclude that must be the one he somehow sees out of. Despite his odd appearance I feel an immediate affinity for him, in contrast to the last guy. He leads me into a building, where a girl approaches us and asks me, "Who made that knife?" I look at the blade in my hand. It doesn't bear a long text like the mock-up, but there is a row of runes along the top edge that I can't read. "He's dead now," I reply laconically.

In the entryway of the building, we immediately go through a door to the right, into what looks like a machine shop. The machines are in the center of the room, and two people are operating them, but I can't tell what they're making. The machines have some kind of spinning disk that either cuts or polishes. The bandaged guy is telling me about a hardware store somewhere. "That's where the first ship came from." I have the impression he is talking about a spaceship, and gather that there is a whole complicated plot behind all of this, but I don't know the details. By the time we finish walking through the room, I am waking up.

I was in some kind of big building. There were other people there,too. I was only casually aware of their presence,seeing them walking back and forth out of the corner of my eye. I was walking down this long carpeted hallway. There were some vending machines to my immediate left. Someone asked me if I wanted something. "Nah,I'm good," I said. I really did want something,but didn't think I had any money with me so I pretended like I was satisfied. I stuck my hand in my pocket and felt I had a bunch of change,which surprised me. "Ooh. I really am good," I said to myself. I stopped and looked at the different machines. Most were those small red candy machines with the knob and coin slot,but there was one that was different. The biggest machine was grey metal and quite old from the look of it. There were no markings on it to indicate what kind of machine it was. I had a handful of change,mostly nickels and dimes. I started to put the coins into this largest machine,but it wouldn't take the dime I had just inserted. There was a small round metal button,which I assumed was the coin return. I pressed it and something fell down into the opening under the coin slot. I saw a couple of wadded up dollar bills on top of something wrapped in green cloth. I started to take the money and whatever was in the cloth,but I noticed a black guy standing next to me. I thought the green cloth might be something illegal,so I didn't take it.

I was on an adventure. I was traveling on a canoe over icy waters. I was being chased by... something. I entered a cave ahead, and there were two allies. One was an old man and the other was girl. From afar, I heard the wolves howling. I also saw the outline of their handler, a guy with a beard and coat (like a hunter).

I have to leave the area so that they'll chase me instead of my allies inside the cave. I swung a rope out of the cave and up (coz fuck gravity and physics) and over the cliff outside. I started to climb up and one of the two greywolves (specific) jumped up and bit/clawed me. I felt the pain on my butt (IRL, upper body to neck hurt like hell, but not butt and below) as it did.

I was able to climb over the cliff. I was above and I tried to save/filter what little water I have left/found. I was debating with myself what was best: using the saucer or using another saucer. Somehow, I felt like I was just wasting the water.

It felt like I did this adventure before in the same dream and it was just reset, and I somehow knew I should fly down into a cave (a different one?) to complete the quest. I flew down and entered a cave, and inside it was being... bulldozed? There were huge mobile machines that were turning dirt over along with huge, round, rusty coins with a hole (square?) in the center. A huge old man (huge in a cartoonish way with cartoonish proportion) wearing a... lab coat? Anyway, he went out from the inner part of the cave and waved and closed the entrance like a mouth, so whatever was outside wouldn't be able to get in.

I was led (forcefully?) into the inside part, supposedly like a prisoner/captive. I arrived inside and saw some allies making themselves at home although the looked like a military area with its similar beds and similar lockers. My female ally was dark-skinned and tall, with her ponytail braided. She looked like a Latina Lara Croft. There was also a guy, light-skinned, jock-like. I couldn't remember much of him.

I was in a mall, grocery store or mall. Red color theme, like National Bookstore. I was buying some stuff. I saw Ivan with a girl outside, and I was expecting to meet him by the entrance, but they weren't there. I thought of SM (mall) and passing by that area. (deja vu about another dream)

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Notes:

- Fell asleep at around 5:30 p.m.
- Woke up almost 8 p.m., no alarm
- Upper-body-to-neck pain, none from the hip below, from parkour training
- Was watching Cosmos (Neil DeGrasse Tyson)

I am OOB, and remained out of body for the entire dream. I was watching myself like I was just another character. Everything is 'tooned. Myself, Manei, Marcus, Krista (Yes, Kristanicole07, a long time reader of my DJ) and Finn and Jake from Adventure Time are preparing to go through a transportation pad that will send us to another world.
Marcus is an inventor and a scientist and he explains the inter-dimensional transportation machine in the most scientific way possible.
"It breaks down your particles and then shoots them into space at a million trillion bajillion miles per hour! And then you wind up somewhere else!"
I false awaken. I get up and go on DV and start reading Krista's DJ. She has written this really long entry and by the looks of it there is a big chunk of lucidity near the end. Somehow or other, the DJ entry she wrote is actually the continuation of the dream. I begin reading it and the dream sucks me back in.
So we step on the transport pad and this white ray shoots off. We then see that we are materializing on another planet. We are in a tunnel constructed out of these black metallic bricks with blue glowing cement in-between them, like something out of Tron.
Krista explains that this was a dream world that she created where humans and animals are in conflict with machines. The world was supposedly created for a novel that she was writing where humans had stopped polluting the earth, but machines that couldn't be harmed or bothered by the pollution kept on building and advancing without them. Humans had returned to their natural roots and teamed up with the animals to try and stop them, but were losing.
This location was one of the machines' bases. It didn't take long for some evil machines to show up. The machines said something about stealing oil. Apparently humans often came here to steal oil or disconnect the oil supplies of the machines because they were reliant on fossil fuels.

Finn and Jake want to stand and fight. Me and Krista decide to run. We begin running through the Tron tunnels until we got to a subway station.
Krista explained that the machines perfectly maintained human cities because they wanted humans to return to their old way of life. We get on the subway. I look back to see if Finn and Jake are coming. They are not.
The subway starts moving and I notice that inside everything is painted white. Krista then explains that the 'master' machine is like GLaDOS from Portal. She then says something about cake, and chocolate cakes manifest in every seat on the subway. I go to try and eat one when they phase away. Apparently they were just holograms.

...The cake is a lie. ._.

I wake up.

Edit: This DJ entry has just inspired me to make a new DJ cover and a new title!

There's this machine. I fed it a small living thing to activate it. Now the screen's showing me several options to choose from, words that don't mean anything to me. The one on the screen at the moment is JEON. Swiping between options, I settle on a word that resembles AERIE written partially with Greek letters. The screen changes to show an image of four clocks. I'm aware I must memorize their appearances quickly, because I won't have another chance.

They're very elaborately designed, beautiful things - solid organic lines mixed with jagged exposed machinery; black wood, black clockwork, gold accents. The first is the simplest - a curving tapered pillar with the word MONUMENT in gold at the base. The others have human faces as ornamentation - the third has a woman's face with eyes closed like a mask and a single arm, arranged in such a way that it gives the impression that she's cradling something.

To the left of the screen, a case appears. It has spaces to fit each of the clocks. At the base of the machine, a slot produces several road maps. Without unfolding them, I can see that several places have been circled.

Date: 7 May

During day: Re-energized by consuming lots of fruits

Pre bed: 3mg melatonin

WBTB duration: 16 mins, woke myself too much, hard time falling back asleep

WBTB: 2x peppermint oil tablets (200mg each)

Recall method: Woke pen-noted an almost illegible description during WBTB for Dream2, briefly reviewed in mind when back to bed

Fragment1: A large spider and then other insects, one was like a bee, I am trying to kill them, smashed them successfully

Dream2 DILD: My father has given me the task of preparing some kind of report for him. I am browsing in a chemistry textbook with different substances and after each substance there is a lengthy regression. My father wants a list of the substances only, which I don't think is right. He is annoyed that I am so slow and still not ready. I move on and jump over some furniture and see my grandma. I begin to explain that the regressions are the most important part in this report.

I continue on my way, and now am in something similar to a trailer with a friend of mine. Obviously she is keeping some items of mine there, one carton box with my stuff, that I want to take on my way. We talk about something. I notice that there is a wounded cheetah on the table. Actually there is no sign of wound but I know it is tired. I play with its tail, and caress it. It purrs and gently rubs its soft head and body on my hand. It is very enjoyable for both of us. I discuss the cheetah with someone, pointing out that it is the fastest creature on earth.



I then move on, I find myself in another place and someone tells me that my friends, and lists a number of people I supposedly know, are dead in another part of the city. Obviously machines have taken over the city and are destroying it. I look outside the window and see construction machines falling into an abyss. I have a bit of a paranoia from the machines because I know that they will soon come to destroy this part of town. I become desperate and say something like " I am so tired of such situations when I think that I am dreaming, but I am not, later it is a dream, then it is not!". I decide it is time to leave the place, and walk out a door. I notice a coca cola label sticker, but there is a poem on it. Perhaps I should leave something behind, I wonder, but there really is no point.

I am going to fly scout the area, to see if the machines are still in that part of town. I stretch my hands horizontally, like a cross, and then lift off in this position. I have good control of my movement this time, but still flying too high is a bit of challenge, it has to do with the vision of the ground below me.

It is hard to look down and perceive the flight distance and control the flight at the same time, but I fly in the direction that I desire. I am also lucid at this point. At above skyscraper height, I fly now forward, over an area with some water, HK in my mind, and look for a place to land. I have completely forgotten about the machines. Then the word "tasks" emerges in my mind and I remember I have work to do. For a second the thought crosses my mind that I may not have the time to do any tasks, but then answer myself that DV people won't mind that because I still had a good time flying.

As I land, I feel some kind of a string release me, I am then on the ground. I look at the DC in front of me. He is rather unpleasant but I accept this, his faces changes and he is now more beautiful and smiling. There is a DC woman to my left, but I pay little attention to her. I think at that point I may have had the gut feeling that this dream is coming to an end, and decide to stabilize before starting on any tasks. I remember to shout something and it feels a bit more stable. Then I throw myself on the ground, feel it as much as possible with my hands, little stones, etc. and as if that isn't enough, I decide to lick the ground. I also lick some kind of trash a blue thread, it tastes like rubber. I find this last part disgusting and decide to spit out. Saliva comes out of my mouth and at that moment I feel my physical lips moving. Before I have any time to react I find myself in my bed, still with my eyes closed, but very aware of my physical body. I feel there is no point to DEILD so I head for the journal.

Note: This wake was a few minutes before the WBTB alarm. I decide to use this wake as WBTB, take notes, visit restroom, wonder whether I should try the menthol tablets, have two tablets. The whole thing takes about 16 mins but I am too awake as I go back to bed. I wonder what to do from here...I decide I might cycle a bit to help me sleep but as I start with sight my mind shuts down and I begin drifting off, while still having awareness of my body. I cannot do even one cycle. It may sound like a good state to do WILD, but it isn't that good. I spent one hour in a semi-conscious borderline state where I occasionally saw and withdrew from dreamlets, yet wasn't dreaming, but rather laying there half-aware of my body and fully aware that I can't fall asleep. The tablets or the earlier wake gave me mild heartburn as well. I finally managed to fall asleep but then it was time to get up...

Dream3 mini-lucid: Together with some guys, this time we are on a flying machine, initially like a retro airplane, I am trying to control its movements, but it is hard. We are going to a conference related to technology, and approaching a block where this is taking place. I see a parking place for flying machines and land this now spacesuit? there. I hope nobody steals it while we are away. I look for number ten part of the building, we must be really close. There is also a McD in the building, which explains why there are so many people around. To my left is Justin Bieber, I am moderately happy. I am lucid for a very short while thinking about the peppermint oil tablets I took and whether they affect my experience. The alarm wakes me up.

Note: Happy about the first lucid, despite the fact that couldn't do any tasks. I feel this was at the end of the early more memorable REM cycles. The second lucid was very short so I am not including it in my count.

They were taking over. There was a weird malfunction that killed a bunch of people. The president didn't acknowledge it so it became a conspiracy theory. I needed to merge with the machines to stop other ones. Something else about talking to my sister. She was saying she loved the guy she was with but wasn't in love. I was on an air plane while talking to her....I almost jumped out before she told me that.

Something else about a prank call that tried to make the person drive 2 hours to a restaurant, but the people were pronouncing "Primm" wrong.


Oh and crazy hi about some guy who's eyes turned blood red all of a sudden.

I am a spirit and invisible to some people, though I can voluntarily be visible in front of certain people. I can pass through floors and walls, yet I can reach out and move small objects and interact with the people who can see me.

I'm not dead, and I am still human, but for some reason nonphysical existance is normal for me and my friends and co-workers accept that. I am working at an investigation office of some kind. Because of my non physical form I work as spy and information gathering. The building I work in is a three storey Edwardian style house and I can float around safely inside without bothering the many people who work there.

My division manager is an young Asian man who's name starts with a T (but I forget the actual name now) and he sends me out in my invisible form to spy on gangsters and corrupt corporations working around the city. I always work at night because sun light hurts me or paralyzes me or something.

The dream becomes blurry and I cannot remember a bit, but something happens and a big bad corporation with corrupt political ties obtains some kind of technology that not only detects my nonphysical presence, but can harm me if I come to close to security sensitive areas in their head office.

Another of the bad guy's technologies is a machine that allows users to mimic my nonphysical form and float around, but unlike me, they are always visible in a semi-transparent state and cannot interact with physical objects. The people they test the machine on die afterwards. My boss, T is kidnapped and forced to used the machine. He dies before we can save him.

I cannot remember the end of this dream.