All DJ Entries

Date: 15/3
Time: Lucid for maybe 10 sec
Method: Short WBTB and SSILD (+WILD?)
Scene:
After doing my SSILD cycles I went back to sleep. I then woke up later again and I think I did a WILD cause I remember lying in bed waiting, and then I was in a dream.
In this dream I seemed to hover just under the ceiling of the room and I got the idea to rub my hands, legs and try to stabilize the dream. I remember looking at my feet and thats when the scene went black.
After this I got non-lucid and I remember something like 4 dreams after that which had an aura of being on the werge of lucid. For example, I looked out the window from and apartment where I attended a party, and the world outside the windows were spinning (I had some beers last night ), this was strange and I almost did a RC.
I think me forgetting to do a RC initially caused me to loose lucidity this time.
I got lucid a short while in a later dream but again I didn't RC.

Oh, one very odd thing happened towards the end of the night. I dreamt Giz Edwards were commenting on my lucid dream and looking puzzled when I told him I had hovered just beneath the ceiling of the room. Maybe he gave me some advice but I can't remember.

I have not set any specific goal other than stabilizing in the dream at the moment, but I notice that what I refer to as "going black" doesn't always mean I wake up, but rather I have a FA or just get back to non-lucid dreaming. I am at this point just focusing on getting lucid as much as possible.

Went to bed at around 22:45. One of the first dreams of the night.

I was in some kind of ruins with mines around. I had gone there with the people of my class because or Maths teacher brought us there. I started looking around, and found that in the carts of some rails that led to the mines were dead bodies. I started to suspect that there was something going on in there, but I didn't say anything. Then, our teacher said that we had to go somewhere, and took us to some kind of big room underground. There, she reveals that she brought us there because we were going to take part in the hunger games, and that we can't escape. I look behind me and see a policeman that is guarding the entrance of the room, and think: "Why can't we leave if there is only one person preventing us from leaving, and we are around 30 people?" The teacher continues talking and says that this game isn't just for fun, it is to investigate some scientific matters and that we will contribute to science enormously.

Dream skips, or at least don't remember what comes here.

All the class accepted to participate in the hunger games, and I had decided to ally with a partner of my class. We are in a living room, and I know that we have to eat or drink something, because everything that we drink or eat gives us experience points that wwe can use to buy equipment for the games. I also know that there is almost no time, so I quickly go to the kitchen (the house was like my grandmother's house) and grab two big bottles of juice. I go back to the living room and throw one to my ally, and I start drinking the other. After finishing drinking, we have a little more of 12.000 experience points, and I know that there is no time to eat anything anymore, so we have to buy equipment quickly. We go to a table that is on the room, and some other people start calling us saying that we are late. My ally goes there, and I quickly grab something I don't remember and some red dices that look normal, even though I know they have a secret function I don't know.

Dream skips again, but I know we've been traveling to the place where the hunger games will take place.

I am in front of a mine, and the game master is telling us the rules that will be used today. We will all start with a lot of grains in the hands that will make difficult grabbing things, and will explode easily littering our hands of purulence. I am wondering that if the game will have real death chance, and I try to recall if the teacher said if this was for real or if we wouldn't die. I also look at a board that tells us the rules. Between them, I read that this games will have buffs and debuffs, like videogames. Then, a girl near there that was born and raised near the place of the games (I don't know who was exactly and where exactly was, I only know that), said:
"If you think this is chaotic, you don't know what it is to grow because of a buff, and not because you are a child"
Then, the game master of the games said that the games are about to begin, and that we should get prepared. In that moment, the dream ends and I wake up.

I put the dream down in my DJ, do SSILD and fall asleep again, and I have a dream related to FFXIII in which I was Lighting trying to escape from the Coccoon. I remember good part of it, but it wasn't especially good. I had a sword and an assault rifle, but I didn't fight or anything D:

My attachment and affection for familiar DCs came back to bite me in this one. They are so lifelike that in the moment they feel every bit as real as the actual person. I love my DCs but I may need to learn to get better about leaving them behind in certain situations.

And I finally had the phase through a solid wall that I've been looking for! That's progress!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #67: All That You Can't Leave Behind

I'm sitting on a carpeted floor talking to my friend BS about strength training, in particular his recent deadlifting injury. At some point, he offers me responsibility or a promotion of some kind, saying that I will be level "17+". It occurs to me that I almost always communicate with him online rather than in person and I become lucid.

I see that I'm sitting on the floor of my master bedroom and BS has vanished. I know that I'm dreaming but the scene's almost distressingly vivid, sort of like a very realistic FA. Our laundry basket is in the middle of the floor but otherwise the room is impeccably organized. Yeah, definitely a dream.

It looks like it's early morning and Wife isn't in the bed. I want out of the house to work on some tasks so I decide to phase right outside Alyzarin-style. I walk up to a wall that leads outside, imagining that it's not really there. But when I try to walk through it, it stops me. This time I imagine the house having that entire section of wall missing, but my phase attempt is still a failure.

I take a few steps back and make one final run-up, focusing my mind on the fact that none of this exists... and pop right through the wall to the outside! My left shoulder slightly clips the window on the way through and a few stray fragments of glass fall with me to the driveway below. It may not have been the prettiest thing, but I'm happy to have finally phased through a solid wall again!

I'd been looking at pictures of Angel Falls during my WBTB and it's fresh in my mind. I Hulk-jump hundreds of feet into the air, willing myself to land at Angel Falls. Instead I come crashing back to Earth on a broad downtown plaza next to a long row of elegant, sculptured water fountains. The plaza is busy this morning and working men and women walk purposefully past, seemingly oblivious to my landing.

My 3-year-old son E is standing here watching the fountains. A few kids are playing in the fountains and I get the sense that he wants to join them. "Hey buddy!" I say. "I'm dreaming all of this."

He pops his thumb into his mouth. I think that he's getting way too old to still be doing that. "That's a lucid dream!" he declares, and smiles slyly.

I bend down and give him a hug. "That's right. We'll talk about this tomorrow. For now I'm going to take you with me." (I haven't thought through how dangerous it probably is to jump off of Angel Falls with a toddler.) I hoist him up to my shoulders the same way that I do every evening during part of our after-dinner walks. But somehow the lift feels awkward, strange, and too heavy. He slips out of my arms and crashes down to the plaza, landing hard on his forehead.

He wails in pain and I hurriedly bend down to scoop him up. I'm terribly upset, bordering on losing lucidity. I check his face and I'm relieved to see that he's unmarked. I hug him tight to me as he squalls in my ear. I'm too emotional to hold the dream together and I wake up.

This was a fun but weird DILD that hit right at the end of a very long NLD. The sudden introduction of this "Dream Coordinator" character was interesting. I enjoy it when my subconscious plays back at me like that.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #66: The Dream Coordinator

I'm on an epic quest, roaming on foot across the United States with several odd characters: a man in his 50s dragging around an 8-foot potted plant, an 11-year-old anorexic boy, and a pretty, short-haired woman in her mid-40s named "Mrs. Rearden". I've been journeying with Mrs. Rearden the longest and I trust her completely.

It's a foggy morning, and we're all sitting for a moment on a long couch outside of a gas station. I notice that gas is "$1200 / 1000 gallons". I think, "$1200?? God, that's expensive." But I take a moment to do the math and realize that this gas is actually super cheap. "Ah... tricky, tricky!" I think.

I see one of those gas station signs with the changeable letters. It reads, "DUDE THIS SUCKS", which I find surprising. I look closer and see that it has changed to "YES WE'RE OPEN!" Just below the sign I see a row of frightening stone gargoyles perched along one of the gas station walls. Finally I've been bombarded with enough clues and now I know that this is a dream.

The other DCs stare silently ahead, so I ignore them and take a look around. It's still foggy, but I realize that I'm not outside at all but rather in what looks like an enormous airplane hangar. There are windows high up in the corner and I float toward one, planning to phase outside. As I reach the window, though, my vision goes black.

I feel myself floating back down, so once again I imagine that I have a gladius in my hand and start swinging it around everywhere. I land back on the ground, but everything stays black. I can still feel the weight of the gladius and my moving arm, though, so I feel fairly relaxed. I start probing at my dream body and discover that I seem to be wearing nothing but my boxer shorts. Suddenly worried, I check to make sure that my wiener is still there. Yes, all is well.

I've been in the dark longer than I'd like so I call out for help. "Somebody come help me! Mrs. Rearden, I need you to help me!" There's no response. I poke and slap at my face, hoping something will happen. Finally, I decide that maybe something will happen if I take off my boxer shorts. As soon as I attempt this, I hear Mrs. Rearden shout, "Don't do that! Stop it! Here, I'll help you." She grabs my left hand, gives it a hard yank, and pulls me into a new dream scene just outside of a door.

I keep a grip on her hand and we walk through the door. We're on the second story walkway of a mall. Mrs. Rearden looks frightened. She mutters, "This is not where the Coordinator wants us to be."

I'm stunned by this. "Who? The Coordinator?"

"Yes," she says. "The Dream Coordinator. This was not what he had planned." She is really upset and keeps looking nervously around the scene

I tug at her hand and move with her further along the walkway. As we approach an elevator, I say, "There is no Dream Coordinator. This is my dream and we don't answer to anybody. But you don't have to come with me any further. I think I'm okay on my own now."

She responds that she wants to help, but as she's speaking, I become disconnected from my dream body. My perspective sinks down to the busy food court on the mall's first floor. I feel like an insubstantial apparition and I'm desperate to regain physical form. I try the gladius trick but it feels all wrong.

There's a guy with a shaved head nearby, black, in his 30s, wandering happily around the food court. I move toward him, hoping that if I make physical contact it'll bring me back into the dream. He sees me floating toward him, though, and takes off at a dead run, screaming in terror. I don't blame him -- if a ghost in nothing but boxer shorts came after me, I'd run like hell, too. With nowhere else to go, I run out of steam and the dream ends.

Pre-Bed
3grams Fish Oil
5 MG Melatonin
1 cup Ginkgo Biloba Tea

Bed time 10:15PM
Alarm at 12:00AM
Move to recliner and do a few quick SSILD cycles before I past out.

#130 Regrets and Holidays - DILD - 1:44AM

I am working for my old boss P. She is next to me and I am printing out photos for her on the ID station printer. I keep asking, "Does this look OK?"

Then I am printing old photos of my mom and me when I was around two years old. Then I am with my dead grandma (nanny). I am looking at a live sized computer screen of a old Christmas tree. The background is solid blue and it looks like a bad photo shop job. I can see discoloration on the edges like it had been cut-and-pasted on the blue background.

Nanny is standing to my right wants a copy of that photo but I think it's too late. She tells me to just use the Christmas tree and do a new one. I see my toddler self and my mom posing in front of the tree. We look like a photo but we look we are really there. I say something to Nanny about it. Then I realize she is dead and become lucid. I start to become emotional but luckily the first thing I think of is the flower TOTM. I quickly reach behind my back and summon a rose. I don't feel it in my hand but pretend its there. When I bring it in front of me it looks like a normal red rose. Nanny wordlessly takes it. Then the emotion takes over me. I begin to cry and hug her. I feel mild pressure of her against me. I say to her. "I love you so much. I really miss you. I wished you weren't dead." I go on to say some other things but I forget now.

I guess because of the emotion I lose lucidity as my awareness gradually becomes a dim thought in my mind. I am suddenly in front of my Grandpa (Pawpaw) and I continue crying and talking. "I am really sorry that I did not call or visit you two before you died." He looks at me disinterested and shrugs a bit. I looks like he mouths something, "Ya." I think how I was a least hoping he was going to tell it was OK, not to worry, but he didn't seem to care. I feel really terrible.

Now, I am sitting at a Thanksgiving feast with my parents and my wife. I act as if nothing happened and feel completely happy. I assume my grandparents are going to join us but I don't see them anywhere. Instead of a Turkey there is a Turkey Pie. Actually, I see 2 pie and both are half eaten. I think there is not enough turkey for everyone. I hear my mom say, "I don't know but I better be getting my pie of turkey." Then I remember that my dad and I ate some earlier and I decide to pass on the Turkey Pie this round so there is enough for everyone.

I go back to sleep.

3:00AM no recall.

100MG Caffeine
2x Valerian Root

I am awakened by a noise at 3:30AM. I feel like I was just on the cusp of a lucid dream but I can't recall what it was. Couldn't go back to sleep after that.

This was really a lucid fragment followed by a short DILD. Ah, there was so much unrealized potential in this dream! Way too short for all its promise. Some phasing progress though!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #65: A Short Soliloquy

I'm standing in a rain forest clearing, standing in a shallow pool of clear water with my 3-year-old son E. I realize that this must be a dream. I immediately think of jumping from Angel Falls for Task of the Year.

E seems to read my mind because he panics and starts scampering around, squeaking, "Don't want to go! No! No! Don't want to! Don't want to go!" I try to get him to calm down but I quickly wake up.

I lay there and try to DEILD, but nothing comes. I flip to my back and start some fast SSILD cycles. I am halfway through the second cycle when I lose consciousness.

It's nighttime and I'm standing in E's darkened room, reflecting on the nature of life, illusion, and reality. I think, "Everything is just an illusion." I quickly realize how right I am.

I look around and see that E's bed and E himself are both gone. I hold up my hands, looking first at the palms. I bend my fingers into claws, noting how realistic my hands look. At some point, I stopped getting so many distortions and extra fingers, it seems. "My hands are an illusion," I whisper to noone in particular.

There's very faint moonlight trickling in through the plantation shutters of E's window. I say, "This wall is an illusion, too." I remember Alyzarin talking about how easy phasing became once she internalized that every wall was nothing but a picture that only she could make real. What could be simpler or more obviously true than that?

I imagine where I'll be when I step through that wall. I move toward the wall, thinking of the Colosseum. But then I have a vision of the top of Angel Falls. It's far more vivid, so I go with that.

As I pass into the wall, it feels like nothing more than mist. My vision cuts to milky gray and I vividly hear splashing water and the shouts and greetings of friends. People are already here waiting for me, but who? Is it people from waking life? DV members preparing to do Task of the Year? Suddenly I wake up. I try to go back to sleep but it's too late in the morning to transition back in.

This was a short but pleasant lucid after drinking a 3-bag brew of peppermint tea during my WBTB. I woke up for the WBTB on the late side (4:45 or so), so I didn't stay awake for very long. Probably because of this, my waking life memories were a little tough to access.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #64: The Menthol Arcade

I'm in a dark arcade playing Street Fighter II with my friend SC. We're talking smack and he says, "I bet you can't win a sumo wrestling match." I say something really brilliant like, "Bring it!" and the game starts.

I'm on the righthand side and both of us are playing as E. Honda. I look down at the game's controls and I'm disappointed to see that it has no joystick and each side has only 3 buttons instead of the usual 6. The weirdness of this sticks in my mind and after thinking it over, I realize that I'm dreaming.

The game starts and neither of us moves at first. I jam on the buttons a bit and my player starts E. Honda's signature "Hundred Hand Slap". I will him to start drifting to the left and he slides along for a few seconds.



Before I can land a shot, the screen goes black. I look over to my left and SC has vanished. I'm completely alone and all of the machines are off now. I turn away and start to explore the rest of the arcade.

The arcade's divided into two sides, and the side that I'm on is arranged around an enormous air hockey table that's at least 4-5 times larger than a normal one. I wonder what someone would do if the puck got stuck in the middle of that huge thing. On the opposite side of the room I see an emergency exit. I think about exploring the other side of the arcade but it occurs to me that I probably have goals I want to work on, and outside seems like a better bet.

I keep verbally reminding myself that this is a dream until I reach the exit. I push on the crash bar, the door swings open, and I'm staring out into a milky gray void. I'm nervous about walking out there but I feel like there's no going back now.

There's a bit of a drop as I step into the void, but my feet land on something solid a couple of feet down. I feel like I'm wearing my work shoes. The scene goes totally dark, but I'm ready to DEILD. I start swinging my arm around, imagining that I have a gladius. Nothing happens for a few seconds, but I still feel relaxed. I start swinging harder, throwing in a few man-grunts for emphasis.

Some sort of wind sweeps up from below and picks me up off of my feet. The wind starts to swirl and soon turns into a cyclone. I can feel myself spinning and spinning, and I think that this is great -- LaBerge suggests spinning as a way to change scenes. I'm confident it will work, and sure enough I see a colorful, spinning scene start to emerge.

The wind dies down, the spinning slows, and I'm gently set down on a vast, jeweled mosaic that stretches in every direction as far as I can see. There's a slightly reddish glow on the horizon and what looks like a set of distant mountains. I'm awestruck by what I see, but it's just a few seconds before the dream ends.

This was a nice, very vivid LD where I was reunited with a long-gone childhood pet. It was more difficult than usual to connect to my tasks and goals. In fact, I could remember very little from waking life. I'm wondering whether this is because it was galantamine night, which required me to use an extremely short WBTB.

And my ever-reliable nose pinch RC let me down!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #63: After the Storm

I'm walking with my 3-year-old E in the back yard of what I think is our family home. The yard is vast, wild, and overgrown. As we walk, a Golden Retriever comes up to us and starts sniffing my hand. He looks almost exactly like the dog that I had when I was a kid, but I dismiss this as coincidence.

I wonder how this dog got into our yard. E, the dog, and I walk to to edge of the property and I see that the entire fence is destroyed. Nothing but a couple of snapped fenceposts remain. Looking further out, I see that our next door neighbor's house has been utterly destroyed. I think that this must be a dream. I perform the nose pinch reality check and can't breathe. I try it again and still can't breathe. "Oh shit," I think. "This is really happening."

The three of us walk further through town. Everywhere we look, houses are toppled and people sift dispiritedly through the rubble. I tell my son, "E, I think there's been a big tornado. Daddy's going to figure this out."

We walk across an empty four-lane road. Some of the shops on this road are open, which strikes me as odd. I RC again, pushing my finger into my palm. My left hand stretches like stiff taffy and I know that this is a dream.

I look down at the Golden Retriever and realize that he really is the same dog that I had when I was a boy! He's been gone almost fifteen years but now he's somehow standing right in front of me. I scratch him behind the ears. He just looks off into the distance with that big, goofy doggy grin. Even though I know that this is all a dream, it feels like a reunion.

E pets the Golden and starts fiddling with his ears. The dog pants and stares contentedly up at the sky. I decide that now is the right time for me to break off on my own.

I walk further along the road. I know that I had lots of plans for this lucid dream but I can't remember any of them. As I'm pondering this, a steady flow of traffic starts on the road and in a few seconds, cars are whizzing by in both directions. I remember a conversation with Xanous and Alyzarin about how they like to play in traffic during lucid dreams.

I start walking across the road. I'm halfway across when I suddenly realize that the cars are driving on the left side of the road (like in Great Britain or New Zealand.) The next thing I know, a small, strange, open-topped car is barreling toward me. Suddenly I'm scared that this car is going to flatten me and I try to force-push it to the side. The little car swerves to the left and its brakes squeal. I float up into the air, drifting slightly away.

The car has stopped and its driver, a woman of about 30, is leaned forward toward the steering wheel. Her eyes are squeezed shut as if she's in pain. I run or fly to the side of her little open-topped car, freaked that I've hurt her somehow when I did that force-push. "Are you okay? Are you okay?"

She doesn't respond, but she's clutching at her stomach. There's something horribly wrong with her. Her stomach is badly distended, stretching all the way down so that it rests on the floorboard of her car. I pick up her enormous, stretched stomach off of the floor and start feeding it back into her body. It takes some effort, but in the end it spools smoothly back into her torso as if nothing had ever happened.

She looks at me and smiles. I notice for the first time that she's incredibly attractive and I kiss her. (Guess I got over the stomach thing!) I pull away before I get myself totally distracted and she drives off, waving as she goes.

Again I try to remember my goals and again they won't come. I finish crossing the road and leap about twelve feet into the air, perching on a crumbling arbor by the side of the road. I look out over the ruined city and see that the destruction stretches for miles. I can't even seem to find my house anymore. Is the destruction getting worse? What's happening to this place?

I consider where to explore next but the dream soon ends.

This was a fun Valentine Task of the Month-themed LD. I managed to pull off the basic TotM ("Find a flower and give it to the next DC you see") and gave a valiant effort at the Advanced ("Find Cupid, and bribe him to shoot your favorite celebrity or DV member.")

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #62: Winged Cupid Painted Blind

I'm talking dreams with my friend AL as we walk behind a row of townhouse garages. I tell him, "You know, I had a dream a few nights ago that Wife and I went out on a double date with you and ML." I feel something strange when I say that, then realize that it's all a dream. "And I'm having a dream right now... gotta go, man!"

I'm disoriented and can't remember what I'm supposed to be doing. I assume I'm supposed to be flying somewhere. Without waiting for AL's response, I turn my face toward the gray, cloudy sky. "Up, up and awaaaay!!" I wail. Absolutely nothing happens.

Then I remember the Task of the Month. I look down at a nearby patch of grass and see a bunch of small, yellow, weedy-looking flowers. I pull a handful of them up and turn to AL, who is now sitting on the ground, piddling with the grass. "Here you go, dude!" I announce, stuffing the flowers into his hand. He just stares at them.

This dream still has some gas in the tank but I have no plan. After a moment I remember the "Cupid" advanced TotM, where I'm supposed to summon either a DV member or celebrity. Even though I'm hoping this task will stay G-rated, I play it safe. I remember that Kate Beckinsale is on my "freebie list" ("A list of 5 celebrities who, should the opportunity arise, one is allowed to sleep with without it being considered as cheating by your significant other.") Also known as "list of absolutely futile spouse-approved celebrity crushes".

"Okay," I say, "Kate Beckinsale will be..." I whirl around. "...right behind me!" I'm staring at nothing but a chain-link fence.

I relax and do it right this time. I think about how she is already standing there and I'll just need to turn around in order to find her.

I whirl around again and this time find myself staring at an invisible woman dressed in a business suit. She has no hands, feet, or head. I watch for a moment and see that the suit is vaguely moving. The suit's right arm reaches across its chest, as if its wearer was scratching her shoulder.

"That's not right," I say, and walk up to her. I place my right hand where her face should be and am surprised to feel nothing at all! I pantomime the motion of molding clay and after a couple seconds of work, her face fills in from top to bottom like liquid being poured into a glass. This is really close to the final result:



Her eyes narrow shrewdly, like she's wondering how exactly I plan to pull off this next part. (I'm wondering the same thing.) I need to add Cupid to this whole scene. I don't want to turn around and potentially go through the hassle of re-summoning my celebrity, but I'm not sure how else to get Cupid into the scene. I think about putting my hand behind me and having him land on it, but then I'm a bit grossed out by the idea of Cupid sitting in my hand naked.

Kate Beckinsale cocks an eyebrow as I stand there struggling with this question. In a few more seconds, the dream solves the problem for me by ending.

ToTM Two Days Late

I recently made friends with Xanous who told me about SSILD. I read about it and tried it...or part of it. I was so tired I only read part of the instructions and could hardly remember them (not that it was complex).

Either my discussion with Xanous or the SSILD technique...or luck, kicked me lucid last night. What do you know?

I'm flying through a forest of pine trees, already lucid. I'm rarely lucid first thing in a dream unless it's a nap or something.

There are many trees, and they aren't really spaced the way they would be in a forest. They seemed kind of even, though not. I was going too fast, but I wasn't afraid of hitting a tree, and I wasn't really in control of my flying.

There came a momentary break in the trees, then they were back with the same odd density. I just let the dream take me. I knew Canis and Xanous were going to help me!

Soon enough I come out of the trees and see a lake. Perfect! I'll try the Task of the Month!
I looked up ToTM last night and landed on the one for January. I didn't think about that in my lucid.

I need to freeze the lake. With absolutely zero belief, I tell it to freeze and move my hands in an unconvincing display of determination. The lake does not freeze. I tried again, and then I told it to freeze and put my hand in the water. That didn't work. I tried ice skating on the water to build my belief, but that didn't work.

I saw some cars in the water. (driving of course) so I tried to catch up to them to do another optional ToTM. I needed to ask them to choose a number between 1 and 10 or 1 and 100 and see what they said. I forgot which were the numbers to ask. (I just read the task again and I was supposed to say, "I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100. What number am I thinking?" so I didn't really get it right.)

I then found a mean looking, bald guy with a big head. He looked like a biker. I don't know where he was sitting, but he was dry even though I was still on the lake. I think I asked him to pick a number. He told me to leave him alone. I started poking him in the face for being a shitty DC.

Determined to do the ToTM, I left. I was now in a room. there were three people on a day bed with a bunch of small stuffed animals. They were much too old to be part of this pre-school scene. It was like an extension of the TV show they were watching with a little dog.

I asked them what they were all doing and one of them said, "It's on TV." OK, whatever. So I turn and there are now more people in the room. I ask one to choose a number between 1 and 10, then correct myself to 1 and 100. The first guy says "Lama" or "Lama 15." I can't remember, but I didn't feel as though he gave me a number so I asked the next person. I was kind of upset that he was playing games with me. The next person gave me an answer like "R" and then something else. This really wasn't funny. I just wanted a number. I moved on but don't remember what the people were saying. It didn't make sense to me so I had a hard time remembering what they said.

I may have realized that I got my answers anyway, so I decided to show off that I was lucid. I told everyone to watch me. I walked slowly and deliberately on another day bed and when I stepped off the bed, I slowly fell to the floor. Darn it! I wasn't flying well! I jumped and levitated poorly again. I kept trying, eventually using some baskets piled up to do a hand-stand, but not a good one.

When I came down, I saw my wife. I thought I would ask her to pick a number between 1 and 100. Surely she would give me a good answer. Then I thought I should advise her that she could become lucid, but I decided to get her to answer my question first, only I woke up.

Another fun effort at Task of the Year. I just need to wind up in the right stadium next time. Again, with the gladius-waving DEILD tech that Xanous and I worked out. What a breakthrough that's been!

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #61: It Has to Be the Colosseum!

I'm standing in front of a hotel, holding my 3-year-old son E. A van pulls up nearby and a gang of suspicious-looking men pours out. It looks to me like they're planning a robbery and I wonder what to do.

E points at the men and bleats, "Want to know what they are doing!" The men turn toward us, eyes narrowed. I feel like they're thinking, "Witnesses." I'm scared. I feel like they'll see us as loose ends to tie off, and I hustle back into the hotel lobby with E in my arms.

As I'm casting about for some place to hide, I realize that it's all a dream. I head toward a huge window at the back of the lobby, planning to phase out of the lobby and get into the air for a task. Everything has started to feel unstable and low-fidelity. The sunlight pouring in through the lobby window has started to look like one big blur. E no longer feels heavy and squirmy like a toddler. It feels more like I'm holding a backpack.

I relax and prepare myself for DEILD, and the dream soon goes black. Like I've done so often recently, I imagine that I'm holding a gladius in my right hand and start madly swinging it around. It takes a few tries to convince myself, but the feeling soon takes hold.

In a few more seconds, I hear a roaring crowd of spectators all around me. I know that I'm already out in the middle of the arena. Some people in the crowd seem to be counting -- don't know what to make of that.

All at once, the whole scene falls into place visually. I'm in a completely cel-shaded, cartoony world, and standing in the middle of an enormous football stadium, right on the 50-yard line. An Asian lady in a business suit walks hurriedly toward me saying, "Great, you're here. Let's get going."

My new handler looks in every way like a cartoon character, as does the crowd, the field, the stadium, and everyone in it. Some sort of production crew is wandering around on the field setting up camera and lighting equipment. This is so close to being what I need, but for Task of the Year, I need to be in the Colosseum.

I plead with her that, "It has to be the Colosseum!" but she doesn't seem to hear me. I repeat myself, "I know you're trying, but this isn't quite right. It has to be the Colosseum! Nothing else will work!"

Nobody hears me, though. Everyone seems to be too busy getting this cel-shaded sporting event ready and can't pay me any mind. I'm thinking about how I can change things in my favor, but I'm not far into this when I wake up.

This was a fairly short little lucid, but I did get some phasing in and felt really happy throughout. And I guess I really like galantamine. LOL.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #60: It's Just a Phase

I'm walking around in my childhood bedroom, practicing lucid dreaming skills. Somehow, though, I'm not actually lucid. (This was a strange feeling.) I'm trying to fly around the room but keep bouncing off of the walls and ceilings. I try shouting "L-dopa!!" like in my previous lucid dream, but even this doesn't do much.

After a while, I feel discouraged. I'm standing by the window wondering what to do when I realize that I wasn't really lucid yet, and everything that had gone before was just me robotically acting out some sort of pseudo-lucid script.

I'm suddenly on the bed again, and everything now feels really vivid. It feels like an OBE except that I'm getting up out of my childhood bed, not the one my physical body's actually occupying. I move to the window again and look out into the street.

The mini-blinds are partially closed but I decide to phase through both them and the glass, get outside, and go play. I push myself through the window, right hand first and pop out in the front yard. It's pretty dark out but when I look at my hands, they're clear and detailed. (Undistorted, too, just like the previous lucid dream.)

I start running, overcome with joy. As I race down the empty street, I gush without a hint of irony: "Galantamine, how I love you!" (That is so freakin embarrassing to type now! ) Darkness descends before I get very far, I don't properly prep for DEILD, and the dream ends.

After trying and failing so much in the last several weeks, I finally made it to the Great Pyramid! I didn't complete the Task of the Year, but I had one fantastic lucid dream.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #59: On the Back of the Sphinx

I'm standing by a hedgerow on a suburban street, waiting for the hedges to part and let me in. Through these hedges is the party I'm supposed to attend. The hedges part for me, then close as I move toward them. "No problem," I say, covering up a sting of rejection. "I'll come back when you're ready for me."

I wander across the street to wait. I wonder whether I'm dreaming. I decide that I'll reality check "in a few minutes". (You slacker!) No -- I don't need to reality check. This is a dream! I look at my hands. No distortion, waviness, extra fingers, or discoloration. Still, I'm sure that I'm dreaming.

The dream feels sharp, vivid, and stable. I feel like I have tons of time and potential. I sprint across the street, leap over the hedgerow, and with a shout I soar into the sky. I'm flying over a rain forest now and my skyrocketing confidence level makes me shout, "L-dopa!!!" (Although I was displaying behavior in line with high dopamine levels, I've never taken L-dopa. Don't know what got into me.) After flying over the rain forest for a while, I wind up in a cloud bank and lose my bearings. Afraid of getting stuck here, I turn back toward the neighborhood, content to take a different direction.

I fly back out of the cloud bank, but a fierce gust of wind kicks up from the other direction and pushes me back toward the clouds. "Okay," I say. "You're taking me to the Pyramid." I relax as I pass back through the cloud bank, emerging over an ocean. I let the wind push me further on and soon I'm flying thousands of feet over a desert dotted with stones. It's dark, and the sand looks as gray as a moonscape. I descend headfirst toward the sand, sure that I'm going to find what I'm looking for.

It's nighttime when I land. I look to my right, and there's the Pyramid, illuminated by artificial light! I'm no more than twenty feet from it. The sphinx lies directly at the base of the Pyramid. I note that in the physical world she'd be further east toward Cairo, but the inconsistency doesn't bother me. Instead it reminds me even more strongly that this is my world.

The sphinx's stony skin is white like alabaster and she has Asian characters tattooed along all four legs and in a single stripe along each side of her body. She's far smaller than I'd expected, no more than thirty feet long. Her entire face has crumbled away (not just her nose.) I'm overcome with this urge to help her. Even setting aside Task of the Year, this is now something I badly want to do.

I press my palms against her face and say, "I'm going to fix you." I feel the stone first roiling then smoothing out against my hands. In a few seconds her face is repaired and her head starts to move. Her face looks mostly feline but there's still a vaguely humanoid quality to it. She licks my hand once and her tongue is the fleshy, rough tongue of a cat. Her head turns vaguely toward my face but her eyes are pupil-less, blank alabaster so I can't tell whether she's looking straight at me.

I swing my leg across her back and ask her to "Take me to the top of the Pyramid." She gets to her feet and starts walking around to the other side of the Pyramid. Her route takes us through a restaurant and bar where a number of women are dancing to this really amazing piece of world music. The melody is from some sort of brass instrument and it's backed by the mouth harp. (I had to google to even figure out what this instrument is called -- here's a good example of the mouth harp in action. I think it was in my memory banks from a video game I played about 15 years ago.)

As I ride through the dance floor, the music and dancing begin to draw me in. One particularly stunning dancer, an ebony-skinned young woman of about 25, is driving me to distraction. I feel the sphinx slowing down and things start to feel unstable. I try to refocus on the task at hand, but the dream falls apart.

This lucid was fueled by pure desperation. I've never fought this hard to save an LD that was going bad, but it paid off. I'm getting a lot of mileage out of this gladius thing.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #58: Generosity and Giants

A young woman named "Crystal Fleming" is collecting money for a charity, and I've pledged $33.13. I'm proud of my "generosity" and totally thrilled that I've found exact change down to the penny. But now I can't find Crystal. It's night, and I trudge across a snowy field to a picnic table where I think she might be waiting. But rather than Crystal, seated at the table is my friend W.

This is unexpected, and as soon as I question whether I'm dreaming, I know that I am. I tell W, "Gotta go, this is a lucid dream." His face is harshly lit, stony, and expressionless. I realize we're in a small, dark room now, getting darker by the moment. I head for the exit, but the scene fades...

Now I'm in the dark. I'm desperate for a lucid dream, though, so there's no way I'm letting this one go. I start swinging a gladius (ancient Roman sword) and willing myself to be in the Colosseum for Task of the Year. On top of this I shout, "This is still a lucid dream!"

I hear Wife muttering and rolling over nearby, and now I'm scared that I'm really yelling and waving my arms around in the bedroom. I want a lucid too badly to stop trying, though, so I jam the index and middle finger of my left hand into my mouth and start chewing on them. This all feels totally real, but I decide to ride it out to the end. If I look like a psycho, I look like a psycho. I'm not dropping this LD.

Suddenly, a sharp new dream scene forms: I'm standing on our bed, fingers in my mouth, swordless right hand swinging madly. The scene's extremely vivid, but there's a slight motion to everything that I see, like I'm slightly drunk. I hop down from the bed and run out into the hall.

The hallway outside of our bedroom is totally transformed. The carpeting is bright pink and the room is decorated floor to ceiling with stuffed animals. There's an exit to the right that doesn't exist IWL, so I explore it, curious where it leads. I find myself in a new hallway with a tall picture window overlooking an early morning street scene.

I phase through the glass out onto the street. The street is wet as if it rained overnight. A few cars pass by, headlights on. It looks like a work day that's just beginning. I fly up into the air, but my confidence isn't what it should be. My altitude is low and my speed's really pitiful. There's an entrance to a mall food court nearby, and the dream seems to be ushering me toward it. I don't resist.

In spite of the early hours, this food court is packed. It's a two story mall, so I try flying again, getting about 6 feet off of the ground and doing that slow drift again. I spot my reflection in the exit door on the opposite side of the food court. Except the reflection isn't me flying -- it's my 6'8" Uncle J walking toward the door with me flying over his shoulder. He looks solid, substantial, and real, while I look like some kind of phantasm. I look down, and he's not there. But in the glass's reflection, he's solid-looking and completely realistic.

Now I can't decide whether I'm me flying toward the door or if I'm my gigantic uncle, lumbering toward the exit on foot. I switch between feeling like I'm the one flying... then the one on foot... then both...

I raise my hand to phase through the door. Uncle J's reflection does the same. The phase fails. From below, an attractive DC calls to me, saying, "Hi! Come down here." The LD's starting to feel thin and I float down. The DC is about 30 with long, dark hair, and attractive almost to the point of absurdity. I remember reading Waggoner during my WBTB and want to ask her what she represents. I feel weak and insubstantial, though, and my voice is just a hoarse whisper. She looks at me, arms crossed, a wry smile on her face and the scene fades to black.

This lucid was long enough that I became legitimately concerned about remembering it. This worry wound up being a bit of a downfall, but it still took me in interesting directions.

Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid

Lucid #57: Gladius and Darkness

I'm experiencing deja vu as I walk through an airport terminal, sure that I've dreamed of this place before. I note all of these little details that I believe my mind left out of the dream version of this place -- the color of the carpeting, the man arguing at the ticket counter, the way that the ceiling curves into a dome in this room. Then I hear the sound of hurried little footsteps. Someone tells me "E is looking for you!" (E is my oldest son.) Now I'm lucid.

I hear E shout playfully from somewhere further down the terminal: "Looking for Daaaaddy!" I know that we're playing hide and seek. I eagerly set off, loving the idea of playing like this in an LD. I move through the terminal and wind up in a series of twisting, narrow office hallways. Other children run by me, possibly engaged in their own games of hide and seek.

As I'm moving through these hallways, a little hand swipes the back of my leg and E declares, "I got Daaaaddy!" I move toward E to scoop him up but he laughs and runs in the opposite direction. I follow but almost immediately I've lost him in the hallways.

I wind up back in the airport terminal and wander through there a while longer before coming to a craft table. Wife is standing at this table wearing a smock and molding some sort of clay. I walk up to the table but she doesn't acknowledge me. I grab a piece of clay and tell her, "I'm having a lucid dream." She responds in essence that I should "show her" what that means. (I don't remember her exact words.)

As I begin molding the clay, it starts foaming and fizzing until the entire surface is covered in a layer of foam. I wipe the foam away bit by bit and underneath is a carved image of a human face. Wife looks astonished. I tell her, "I'm telling you, being lucid is the way to go."

She hands me a round piece of glass. "Make me a picture of a Christmas tree." I nod, take the glass from her, and rub my hand across it once. Instead of a Christmas tree, I produce a little stained glass picture of an eye.

Wife looks at it. "Nice. But that's not a Christmas tree. I thought you said you were having a lucid dream."

A bit baffled, I shrug and say, "I don't know what to tell you." She goes back to her crafts and I walk further along in the airport terminal. I'm loving the experience of being lucid again and I suddenly fret that I'll forget everything that's happened. I try to recall everything that's happened up to this point, but this destabilizes the scene. Everything collapses into darkness.

I remember that Xanous had talked about handling "dark scenes" by acting out some action like riding a bike or running. I want to perform a Task of the Year, so I will myself to have a gladius in my hand. (The gladius is a sword of ancient Rome.) I swing the sword back and forth in the darkness, imagining that I'm locked in a dark tunnel underneath the Colosseum. I can hear the crowd now, and I know that the gates will open any moment to let me out for my match. I'm nervous with anticipation. I try to remember whether I have to kill for this task, and think that I do.



I see a blob of light forming in the corner of my vision. I'm filled with fear and nervous tension. But just as I'm bursting with anticipation, the crowd noise dies down and the blob of light forms into a high window in the hallway of a university. My vision is badly distorted around the edges, almost as if I'm wearing a shredded contact lens.

The window is about 15 feet above me, and I float up to it to start phasing through the glass. The phasing is difficult and awkward. It feels like I'm dragging my body through thick plastic wrap. I finally make it through and then I'm flying over a park in the mid-afternoon. The dream feels thin now, and I fly only a short distance before waking up.