lucid

I am walking down the street when I see a friend I have not seen in several years. He seems glum. I approach him and ask him what is wrong. He answers noncommittally, so I ask again. He vanishes. I am a little worried because I think I am going crazy. I then realize I am dreaming.

I am now in my childhood home. I say to myself, "We are not flying, having sex, or eating food. What do we want to do?" I see some action figures up on shelves. I grab one (the Gorilla alien from the ALIENS franchise)



by the arms using perspective. I then try to expand him but he won't grow. I settle for bringing him to life. With a couple more magical hand movements I bring the rest to life, including a group of tiny Harry Potter wizards with glowing wands. They begin to chase and try to attack me. I run to the master bedroom and shut the door (throw a shirt on top of the wizards?) and then stuff some clothing under the door so the little wizards won't be able to get in with their magic.

I decide I want to summon someone through the TV. At that point I wake up.

Not much this week due to illness. Haven't tried inducing since last week, but had a near miss last night and an LD this morning:

I am on a college campus, inside a coffee shop. I am eating something in line and not paying attention. Suddenly it is my turn to get coffee. I apologize to the barista for not being ready and he walks away from me. I try locate the decaf. I see the dispenser for decaf coffee and ask if it is dark roast. He says that it is. I order a coffee and then hand him a plastic coffee cup/thermos I have picked up from inside. It is full of Cookie Crisp cereal (apparently what I was eating). He looks inside the mug, and then dumps all of the cereal into a trash. I am a bit shocked, as I did not expect this. I go back to the displays in the story, looking for another bag of cookie crisp. I find one, but realize that I had emptied a bag into the mug without paying for it. I decide to steal this bag since the barista ruined my opportunity to eat the other one. I shove them in a plastic grocery bag I am carrying.

I return to the counter. The barista says I look familiar and asks where he's seen me before. I agree and say he also looks familiar but that I don't know. He asks if I went to a lecture the previous day. I say I didn't. I ask him if he's a lucid dreamer.

"Yes," he says.

"Oh, cool," I say. "How long have you been lucid dreaming?"

"Since he walked in the door."

I stare at him for a moment before nose pinching. Seems I am awake, but I check my watch anyway. It is spazzing out and being weird. Could be a dream. He comments on me looking at my watch, saying, "Oh, that's one of the ways you check to see if you're in a dream." I look suspiciously at him and say, "This is a dream, isn't it?" He makes some kind of noncommittal gesture.

I look around at my surroundings. Everything seems very normal and very real. This seems like reality. I then realize that if I wake up in a few minutes I will be sort of pissed. I think back. When was the last time I went to sleep?And then I remember. I fell asleep at home. This is definitely a dream. Elated, I fly easily into the sky. The dream is providing me with good flying energy, and I am soaring higher and higher. I look down, and survey the ground below me, before diving headfirst at the ground. The street scene has become an ocean, and I dive beneath the waves. It unfortunately does not feel very real, and the dream begins breaking up. However, I continue flying along, hoping the visuals and tactile sensations will return. I wake up.

Trying to fall asleep consciously. Begin attempt at 10:40 pm. After sometime of lying on threshold, roll over and check watch: 12:30 AM. RC and am awake. Surprised so much time has passed, but certain I did not lose consciousness. Lie back on back, just try to fall asleep. Falling sensation,vivid HI (can't remember it now, but I recognized it when I saw it), and then falling completely backward. "Land" in body. Warmth spreads over body. Body begins breathing rhythmically--fell asleep with hands on stomach, difficult to get deep breaths. I just let body do what it wants. Goes on for some time (30 minutes?). Undercurrent of thoughts, but I am able to easily observe them. Just observe thoughts while lying, and use breath as anchor.

Breathing begins to slow down. Continues to slow, warmth continues to spread through body until it is difficult to feel body. Can barely feel body now or hear breathing. I am just aware of my heart beat and some undercurrent thoughts.

Vision begins to brighten and expand, and outer awareness that is left very quickly dimming. I feel this is the approach of delta sleep. Heart rate increases until vision returns to black. I can hear my breathing again. I rest here observing thoughts and practicing mindfulness of breathing until my butt begins to hurt. Leg is also in weird position. I lie like this for some time, hoping to enter the "bright awareness" again. I finally move, and decide to try one last time. Am able to move body without fully returning to normal waking state. Pain is too much after a while. Roll over and check watch. It is 3:55 AM.

I am a student at a prep school. I am being bullied by the gym teacher (who looks like a psychotic mix between Dolph Lundgren and Josh Hartnett He tells me he'll give me a black star--punch me in the forehead, but so administrators won't see any marks. Then he'll get some of the other kids to "beat my ass." They will "put me in a circle" and punch me.

I get in trouble for something with a friend (not someone I know in WL), and we both get sent to the principal's office. Principal is telling my friend how he will get him kicked out of this school. My friend starts crying, and asking why I won't be getting kicked out as well. The principal says the circumstances are different for me. The principal goes on, looking through some thick book, and saying things like, "Seems there is an opening at such-and-such school." I scoot my chair (it's a rolley chair) closer to see what he is reading.

It's an album of Winnie the Pooh pictures. I laugh. He sees that I've seen the album and smiles. He then kindly lectures us on behaving in class, and tells us we need to do that. I say, "I am going to shoot straight with you," to the principal. I tell him about the gym teacher's threats. He slowly transforms from a slender, bald man with glasses to a heavier, blonde-bearded guy. The bearded guy tells us how they called the gym teacher "the cheat pro" in high school because he always cheated. I ask incredulously if he went to school here. The principal says he did not. His beard has changed into some weird metal clip flapping from his chin. He also has a clip hanging from his lower lip, his ears, and maybe nose (?). The clips flap as he talks. This seems vaguely unprofessional to me, but don't notice it as weird

The principal has now changed into a woman. She says she is sure the teacher did not mean his threats, and that he has to have some way to control the class. I tell her she is wrong, and that I fully expect to be beaten up soon. I tell her I will let her know if that happens.

My friend and I are heading back to class. I realize I forgot my book bag in the principal's office. I also am trying to remember what my science homework is. I realize I have done no science homework the entire year. Does that mean I just have a zero in the class? Why didn't the principal mention my grade? It suddenly dawns on me that I might be dreaming. I nose pinch twice and can breathe. My friend is looking at me expectantly. I think to tell him this is a dream, but then remember how DCs tend to wig out on me if I do that. I say nothing.

I also realize I don't need to go back to the office for the backpack, as I can just summon it here. I reach behind me, feeling for the strap. I feel the correct texture, and pull the backpack around to me. It has some orange coloration, but it otherwise almost exactly like the back pack I have in WL. I am satisfied. I then decide to head outside.

There are many students in the main hall--everyone seems to be heading to class. I am walking down a wide staircase with students going up and down. I see a boy trying to lift a duffel bag up onto the step above him--the step he is trying to get up is somehow very high, about four or five feet. I lift the bag up for him, reasoning that this should not take too much of my dream time. He thanks me (?) and then says I should lift bags in a certain way--I should "waffle" them. Whatevs

Another student stops me, and starts talking. I stop and listen, but it comes out garbled. I ask him to repeat himself. He shakes his head, and says he was just going to "cheer me on" or something. I realize this is just a DC, and therefore is not real. "You're fine," I say to him, and continue on to the front steps of the school. As I approach, I remember to observe the dream. What would that entail here? I pay more attention. Doors are made of glass. I go outside onto the main steps.

Something is now in my mouth--I'm chewing. Two girls approach me. They want me to take a survey or something. I spit the food out of my mouth in a retching fashion to see how they will react. They just stare at the chewed up food on the ground. I wake up. Go for the DEILD but no

Lying in bed, trying to WILD/fall asleep. Watching FMA Brotherhood with wife. Scar is speaking; wife comments on his scarred face. He looks a little weird to me--part of his face is white (Scar's character is brown-skinned in the show). Fast-paced outro music begins:



It seems clear that Scar is going to die in this next episode. My wife talks about them playing up his sacrifice. I am now looking at a Super Mario Bros. screen. Realize it is a dream, but am not sure if this is a transition so do nothing. Currently I have no body. Playing Mario Bros. 3 world 1 map music: (sorry gang, couldn't post two videos--look the second one up!)

Mario flies off wearing his cape from Super Mario World. The game transitions to some weird game with a naked baby's butt. Dream has solidified now and I have a body. I slap the baby's butt through the screen to see if I can interact with the game. I don't feel anything except for the t.v. screen, but the character reacts. I try to pick the baby up this fails. Danie Radcliffe from Harry Potter is sitting in a hot tub. He criticizes me for not picking up the baby correctly. I knock him backwards into the water. Move around the screen a bit--maybe some kind of office in isometric third-person view, like the old Crusader games. Some zombies wandering around. I decide I don't want to play a game for my entire LD, so I get up and leave the room.

Emerge in my mom's house, then remember to observe the dream. A thought comes up: can I remember any of the January tasks? Ah yes, I remember to new ones. Shouldn't be hard. But I'm not going to try hard. Just observe, and if the necessary tools emerge, then use them. I think I see a component resting on a cabinet, but when I look it is not there. I am looking inside of a cabinet when I wake up. Lie still and begin DEILD transition. Roll off of the mat and am falling through space. Seems to be going well, but keep knocking against something as I fall. I try to ignore it but then wake up. Try once more, then RC and write this down.

5:38 AM: 2 hour WBTB (ungh, accidental). Then I am sitting in a car, parked beside a building. I am deciding on something, maybe radio stations. It occurs to me that I might be dreaming, but I brush it off--a thought that arises, but then gets subsumed again before I have a chance to really address it. I think about driving somewhere, then realize I have been sitting in the car for sometime. I get out and go inside the building. As I am walking in, remember I wanted to LD and am pretty sure this is a dream right now. I nose pinch and can breathe.

I decide to spin to stabilize. Dream blacks out (as spinning usually causes this for me). I continue walking down the hallway, visualize the scene I was just in. It slowly returns. I enter some doorways, and quickly become disoriented--there are doors and hallways all over the place. No big deal--it's a dream. I can't get lost. I jump up and touch the ceiling, testing gravity. Keep walking, and find myself in a restroom. I recognize this as "dream locale"--I often dream about public toilets In one stall, there is no urinal. I decide to test summoning. I visualize a urinal, look around the side of the stall, and then back. Peekaboo--no urinal. C'mon, now . . . . I think, and try a few more times. Finally, a urinal appears. Cool. I try to do something else with the urinal (don't remember exactly what) but when I look again, there is some pipe extending out of the wall and emptying into the toilet. I spin again and the dream fades. I reappear in the restroom. I wake up. Try to DEILD, but nothing.

Lay in bed for approximately an hour. Just try to drift off normally, with the intent to be lucid and observe the dream state. I am at a grocery store. I'm outside, digging through a bin of marshmallow products. I eat something (maybe a single, unwrapped marshmallow) and then begin examining labels to see which marshmallows have vegan ingredients. I recognize the brand of one as not vegan. I also see some cookies sandwiches with marshmallow in the middle. These are probably not vegan, I reason. The fact that they are unwrapped strikes me as odd, but not terribly so. I start to go inside the grocery store. Some fast-paced techno music is playing. I remember I am at a grocery store (a dream sign of mine), so it would be a good idea to nose pinch. I do. I'm awake. I think that I should be a little more thorough, however, and pinch about seven or eight more times. Little by little, I feel like I can breathe, Until I can breathe. I CAN BREATHE.

I begin stripping off my jacket because I feel hot (think this was some residue from the original dream plot). Inside, techno is louder. I'm no longer in a grocery store, but an office building with multicolored, vibrantly-glowing cubicles (reds, greens, and blues I remember). In one of them, as I approach, a stickman in shirt and tie is mirroring my movements exactly. I almost run to interact but then remember I wanted to take it easy, and just observe. I take in the visual details of this place, turning around. Above me, there are men in suits walking around on a higher floor. I think to fly up there, but no, seriously, just observe. As I watch, the landscape becomes more malleable. The distance in height is shortening and shortening--but this is more of a perspective thing: almost as if I looked and judged incorrectly the distance before, and my "eyes" are slowly correcting the error. Interesting. I hear wife's alarm and wake up. Try for a DEILD, but no.

5:55 AM: Close to lucidity a few times (in high school again, both with people my own age and people who are not). Finally, I am driving with my wife. Not sure how, but enough weird stuff occurs that I nose pinch. I am nose pinching, and about to say that it is not a dream, when I realize I can actually breathe. I look at my wife and say, "I can breathe!" She smiles and is RCing as well. I am still not sure. Jokingly, I say, "I am going to do one more RC." I then open the car door as we are speeding along. "If this is a dream, I can jump out and be OK." She doesn't say anything. I look at my hands. They are a little off, but otherwise normal. I look away and look back several times. Finally, I only have two fingers, and one of them is twisted up like an ugly tree root.

"I've only got two fingers!" I say to my wife in a "this is ridiculous" tone of voice. "This is a dream." I then jump out of the car. I glide to a stop, as though the car was never moving at all. My wife gets out of the car too. We are in a wooded area, and there is a dirt cliff high above us. My wife easily flies up to this spot. I decide to follow, but can't fly after her. I begin practicing what I had told myself in WL: I'm flying, I think, I'm flying! It doesn't work, though, so I jump and start climbing up the dirt cliff. My wife extends her hand down to me to help me up. I wake up and then DEILD.

I roll left (not normal) and fall through space. I am in darkness for a bit, but then "open my dream eyes." I am falling through some cavernous area, with Egyptian iconography. I see a sign that looks like an advertisement for the Discovery channel. I finally land in what I think was a ruin of sorts.

I sense the gravity is low here. I moon jump through the house. Fun! I notice the house becoming more "house-like" and less ruin-like. In the bathroom, I look around the shower curtain to see who is there. Nobody. I look away and look back, expecting a beautiful woman to be there. Surprise! No, she is not there. I try this a couple of times, to no effect. I then see some shadows in the soap dish. The shadows begin to form into little silhouettes of goblins. I begin interacting with them, and begin to pretend to be mean. They respond by swinging little weapons around (I remember one swinging a tiny flail). I remember to give them positive energy. They really seem to hate it, as they begin screaming. I tickle them and they start dying. I wake up.

MILD for a few minutes then return to sleep. I am driving along a mountain path and listening to a rock song. I think to myself how this singer has a melodious voice, when I suddenly wonder if this is real or not. I nose pinch but find it difficult to breathe. I stop the car by putting my feet down and lifting the main wheel up. I then look out over a cliff at the town below. I think of how I would love to jump from here, if I could just be sure I was dreaming. I sense for my WL body.Hey, there it is! but unfortunately I wake up.

6:30 AM: SinisterDezz has a question about LDing. He posts in the forum, and uses a box of black tiles with his question written on it as an accompanying picture. The forum warns him that this picture is creepy, and not to post it, but he does anyway. NyxCC answers his question. Dreamer shows up as well, but can't remember much else.

In this same dream sequence, there is a machine that can cause a person to both LD and AP. I reason in the dream that the machine really does not need to send a soul anywhere to WILD (odd meta moment). During the AP, the soul bounces around in a triangular part of the machine (I drew a cryptic picture in my DJ, posting it would really not help much). Seth Rogan also shows up in this dream as the Green Hornet (a movie I have never seen). I wake up, feeling close to an LD. I MILD and then return to sleep.

I am in bed. I pretty blonde girl is asking me all sorts of questions about how she looks. As she asks these questions, she is showing more and more skin--pulling up her shirt, putting a foot on the bed so I can see her legs, and finally spreading her legs above me. I suddenly begin to wonder if this is a dream. I close my eyes and nose pinch. Hmm. I lie here breathing, and thinking of goals. Ah yes, wanted to play with kitten T. Now I am in darkness., even after opening my eyes. I sweep the "hair" out of my eyes and the scenery returns. The blonde girl is gone now, and I head downstairs.

I find kitten by the sliding glass doors, watching outside. I scoop her up and try phasing through the wall. I am going through easily but kitten is getting stuck. I duck down, see the opening in the wall, and tunnel out.

Outside, I want kitten to fly so I throw her into the air. She definitely falls on the pavement, and pretty hard (her legs splay out from the impact). I have a twinge of discomfort, as I would not want to hurt my real life cat this way, but reason that this is just a dream, and throw her into the air again. Same result, except this time, after standing up, she turns into a tiny black beetle and flies away. I decide to do some flying myself. I try a couple of times (no success) and wake up.

A vivid NLD of me playing an arcade game with my wife (similar to something like Double Dragon, back in the day, but with a Golden Axe flair). The joysticks are old-fashioned (plastic and stiff). The game screen slowly becomes more panoramic and immersive, so that I seem to be right on top of my character, watching fight an enemy. I wake up from this, and then DEILD. The transition rolls me over several times. Unfortunately, I do not remember what happened in this dream but I wake up, and DEILD again. The transition is once again the same (rolling across the mat) except this time I fall out of anonexistent bed and onto the floor. I sit for a moment. Am I asleep? I nose pinch.With lucidity comes a raging hard-on. I imagine some beautiful woman appearing in the bedroom. She does not show up, so I go in search of her. The doors to the bedroom are folding closet doors. I phase through them. I pass through the wood, but my body doesn't want to go through the metal hinges. Now I am dragging a set of closet doors with me as I walk through what looks like a dark, empty shopping mall. I break the metal joints apart, and more continue to form (there end up being like seven hinges) but I finally break all of them and get the doors off of me. Now where would a beautiful be? I walk down the thoroughfare for a bit, and then turn and head back the way I came. On my left is a store with closet doors as the outside walls. I walk a ways, thinking I will find the entrance. Just more closet door-walls. I think to myself that these doors could go on forever when I wake up.

Lying in bed, trying to fall asleep. Suddenly realize the TV is on in front of me. There is no TV in the bedroom, though. I easily roll off of the mat and stand up. The comforter comes with and tries to tangle me. I nose pinch and can breathe. I ignore the comforter and head for the door. I take my mouth guard out (it was bothering me!), hesitate a second before tossing it.

Phasing is just the thing to start this dream off right, I think, and start to phase through the door. Have some issues, and get kicked back. I push on the door until falls off of its hinges. I carry it over my head into the living room. I decide to smash the windows with it. I hurl it at the window, but it rebounds off of the screen and comes back to me. I try again. I decide to go outside and smash stuff up. I am unlocking the door when I wake up.

I am talking to a custodian in the bathroom. As I am washing my hands, I feel off. I remember that I am actually asleep and trying to LD. Having recently been plagued by lucid dreamlets, I very carefully nose pinch. Good to go. I ignore my hands being wet and head out into the main hall. There is a sliding closet door with light coming from behind it. I imagine that it goes outside and begin to phase through. My lower body passes through like a ghost (not normal) but my upper body becomes lodged somehow. I duck down to go through, and see a lane stretching into the distance, with fences on both sides (like something out of the Cider House Rules). I wake up. Think to DEILD but it is too late.

DEILD. Transition but am still lying on mat. Body feels incredibly heavy; I RC, but almost just "go back to sleep" because it is so hard to move. I reason that that would be pointless, however, because I am already asleep. I decide to get up, and as I do, my body becomes lighter and lighter, and until I just fly out of bed. I run out of the room on all fours.

Cats are out in the living room. My father's cat is here, which is odd, and he eyes me suspiciously as I come charging out. He seems scared, and then attacks and bites me. I hit him in face with a pillow. Then try to make friends. He seems pissed. My wife then comes out of the bedroom. I suddenly realize that this dream is scary, and things could go wrong if I let my emotions get worked up. So I still my mind and focus on people liking me

My wife seems happy to see me. She tells me to go get ready for bed, because she wants "quality time." I consider telling her this is a dream, but I do not I wake up.

I am reading a secret/restricted Jehovah's Witnesses' text called "Watchtower" In it, a discussion about a certain river where initiations and enlightenment have occurred. I go to the river. I am swimming up it, into a cave. I have a vision/flashback (?) of Gurdjieff trying to bring someone to enlightenment. He gives this man a baby. The man is at the river for the purpose of enlightenment, and is displeased to have to take care of a child. Then he becomes attached to the child. He fears for its safety. Gurdjieff comes back, and turns the child into dust. It sinks into the river. The man is devastated. Gurdjieff explains:

"At first you did not want the child. You were blown by the winds of karma one way. Then you wanted the child. You were blown the other way. Now I have taken the child, and you suffer for it." The man asks if he is close to enlightenment. Gurdjieff laughs and says there are many stages.

I swim back toward the mouth of the cave and down a small waterfall. The river has become a water park, and I accidentally bump someone coming up the waterfall (?). Segue into a FA: "wake up" at a pool. I am wondering if this is a dream when my wife asks the same question. I nose pinch and can breathe. We walk around the pool together; not super lucid, as I think my wife is real. We see a girl DC. I start fooling around with her, and she starts to rub my wife's breasts. My wife pulls away, and says it feels uncomfortable. I think to show off my dream control, and order the DC to run across the street. She does, and a path appears for her to run on. I urge her onward. Finally awake into a FA; my wife is awake, and I question her about the dream, but she says was not there. I assume it was a just a "normal" LD and return to sleep. I then wake up.

Dream WILD: Talking to my aunt on the phone; we decide to LD together. We enter the dream, and try to help some man find his daughter. More of a semi-lucid, although I was aware I was dreaming. Tough call She tells me about using LDing to contact my dead grandfather. She keeps calling it "remedying" though (like REMedying . . . .)Another FA with my wife. She has her nightlight on. We talk about something, and then I go "back" to sleep.

A dream about not being able to fall asleep. I finally take Sageous's advice to get up and do something else. I decide to make some tea. I use AnotherDreamer's recipe, made out of sunflower leaves and apple chips. I start eating the apple chips. I check my watch twice as an RC, and the numbers do change, but this is not enough to trigger me. In fact, I think I ignore it altogether.

WILD at bedtime. Lots of body vibrations (not normal for me) and then transition in NREM. The sensation is similar to diving under water, and all of a sudden the world is quiet. I wait for a bit to see if something will happen. A helicopter appears. We are flying. I imagine that it's snowing, and begin to hear jingle bells in my head. I silence them, though, because this seems like a military dream, and those are out of place. Once the scene sets, it is snowing

I am set down on a watch tower. A man on a tower across from me yells, "Let's move it, rookie!" This seems to me like a Call of Duty dream. I tell him to extend the drawbridge to me. He drops a ladder to the ground. "No, John," I say, "the button underneath." He fumbles for a minute, and seems like he is having trouble. I remain calm. Can't remember what happened, but think he extended the bridge, because I remember being very pleased with my dream control

I somehow make it across; while I am running over, I try to recall the other tasks besides the snowball. On the other tower, inside a room, there are some dogs lying on a bed--two pit bulls, black and white spotted. I recognize this as my "doubles" dream sign, but of course don't RC because this is already a dream. I go down the ladder, looking for snow. It seems it has all dried up, but I think that if I run around the corner of the building, there will be some left. There is. I run over and pack a snowball. Cold! My feet are cold too, but I remind myself that it's a dream and that it isn't real cold. I start climbing the ladder with the big snowball and wake up.

FA. "Awake" from stress dream with wasps. I am lying in the guest bedroom at my aunt's house. I am disappointed that I did not become lucid. Thinking about getting up, but don't want to. I then hear an all-call: "Wake up call for [dream uses my full name]." Really? I imagine this must be a dream. I nose pinch. Sweet! I am relieve to be lucid after a tough night. I find it difficult to phase through the bedroom door; it finally just falls off of its hinges, and lands flat with me on top of it. I am thinking about the winter tasks. I head out to the kitchen/patio area. Before I get to the main door, I imagine snow. I even hear sleigh bells in my ears. I open the door.

Nothing but green grass. I decide if I run up the street I might find some snow. I am heading out the screen door when I am confronted by a little squirrel with big bat ears. He is trying to get into the screened-in area. I remind myself that this is a dream, and then let him in. He latches onto my leg, and begins climbing up me. I'm nervous about him biting and really don't want him on me. He climbs up and nestles between my neck and shoulder. Eh . . . . I keep expecting a bite on the neck but it never comes. I am trying to ignore him and continue my walk down the street when I wake up.

Scary non-lucid about losing my kitten. She jumps out of the car at a rest stop and runs off. I catch her once, but she gets away again. I call out to her but she does not come back. Some people seem to have found a kitten; it has spots though, and is not her. "That is not my baby," I say to the girl. She takes the kitten back. Awake from this and DEILD. Transition rolls me over and over and over. Unfortunately, don't remember a thing about what happened, except that I woke up, and DEILDed again, with a similar transition.

I am walking through some building. I walk downstairs and up to a huge glass wall. I phase through easily. I then am outside in a grassy area (something like a college campus). There is a very thick brick wall near me. I am phasing through when I suddenly lose my confidence; wall is very thick and I worry about becoming trapped inside. Remember I wanted to work on flying. Just can't seem to get into the air. I try flying like Superman. Nada. I shrug.

Wake up, try for another DEILD but reenter non-lucidly; a guy is sitting on me and talking about Emanuel Swedenborg. I tell him I'm not interested, and to get off of me, because I am trying to DEILD. A few minutes later I wake up.

Feel WILD set in, roll off of the mat. Am falling/flying for some time, but keeping my mind blank as I do. I am soaring around a house (my mom's house?), and the characters from the Simpsons live inside. I try to enter via a window, but accidentally break a window with my head. Scene instantly becomes hyper-realistic (not cartoon-like anymore) and the characters vanish. I have the feeling that, like a big oaf, I ruined this part of the dream. I walk inside the house.

Inside, I try practicing my dream control via perspective by crushing my bedroom door frame top to bottom. Nothing happens. I attempt a few more times, but still am unsuccessful. I leave the house and wander about. Yep, it's out in the country, just like waking life. I think how I will write down in my dream journal that this was a very long, very stable, very boring LD. Not much going on, and no DCs around. I decide to relax and see what "dream memories" come up (such as why I might be here, etc.). I wake up. Do some MILD and back to sleep.

Walking with my sister-in-law to a school for young kids. I am examining a wall mural the kids have done. I realize that it has something to do with Theravada Buddhism. I suddenly think, "The girls go to a Buddhist school?" I nose pinchand can breathe. My sister-in-law confirms my suspicions and says that the curriculum here is inspired by Theravada Buddhism; the kids are taught to be mindful of their one precious human life. Excited, I decide to see what the inside of the school looks like. I find a door and open it. Behind it is another door. This is funny to me, and undeterred, I open this door as well.

Inside, people are eating food and talking. I see a coworker eating. I look around, trying to decide who to talk to. There is a large man, with no shirt and a hairy chest, sitting in a sauna-like area and talking on a phone. This guy seems fairly impressive, so I decide to talk to him. He sees me waiting, then puts his phone away and greets me. I say I have a question about dreams, from a Theravadan perspective. He nods, then seems to consider my statement carefully. He then says,

"Well, suppose you have a tikkoku. That's kind of like a cocaku. You see?"

I say I don't quite see. I then think that I will tell him he is dreaming. He tells me he is unable to lucid dream.

"Pinch your nose!" I say. He shoves his finger up his nose perversely, and then begins tugging at his nostril. He becomes smaller and more imp-like. My own nostrils start to feel affected, and I realize he is just my own mind being overactive. My body unaccountably becomes aroused, and seeing this, the DC lunges at my crotch. Sigh. I hug the DC and tell him it's OK. He calms down quite a bit. I blank my mind and he stops moving altogether. Can't remember how but I soon wake up. Lie still and DEILD into next dream.

Mario Bros. screen with Bowser, too. I know it is a dream, and begin my slow fall (something that happens often to me during WILD and DEILD). I hear water (currently in darkness) and begin imagining a beach (trying to create scenery). I also begin imagining the opening scenes of FFVIII, along with the theme song, Liberi Fatali:



Scenery generates into a desert canyon (pretty close, sand, right?) with shallow water flowing along the sad swiftly. I am carried along on into a gorge/cave. Above, I see a hole in the ceiling, and fly up to investigate. Halfway up, I realize I am effortlessly flying, and begin to fall; I climb up a bit, and then fly the rest of the way. The hole is too small to get out of, so I begin scooping the rock away with my hands. I hear an evil laugh above; outside, there is a stormy sky, with a gray dragon flying above me. I feel terrified--at the dragon, at the feeling that the dream wants me to fight the dragon, and that the floor of the cave is so far below me. I remind myself that this is just a dream but it is not helping much. However, I decide to fly up and face the dragon. I am trying to get out of the hole when I wake up, heart pounding and very relieved. MILD and then return to sleep.

I am at work. A coworker comes up to me and asks me if I got an email. I say I did not, and ask what it was about. He says something that I can't understand. I ask him to repeat, and while I understand more, I still can't quite catch his meaning. I say, "something else someone wants me to do, right?" concerning the email. He looks embarrassed. Turns out the email concerns him getting promoted. Whatever. I reenter my work area, and food is laid out for everyone. A coworker has already begun eating. This seems vaguely against the rules, and I am about to reprimand her when I realize I'm dreaming. Sweet! I pop a piece of fried tofu into my mouth. I also shout, testing out my dream voice. It re-echoes oddly in my head. I wake up.