Wildman

#1020:
Date: July 28th, 2011
Length: 10 minutes

This was a very odd, quite long dream. It had a bunch of different segments and my memory of it has faded a bit (not to mention I can't read half the stuff I wrote), but the overall idea was this: myself and a few other people were under the effects of some kind of curse that would, after a week, erase us out of existence. For some reason after this happened we would be forced to relive the final day again and again, groundhog day style. The dream basically consists of me reliving the day repeatedly, although each day is completely different and happens in a different place. My chronology of the whole dream is a bit funky, but I've tried to put it together in the way that makes most sense. I really hope this isn't totally confusing/unreadable, but it's pretty hard to explain.

<I don't remember much of this part, but I think I was walking with a few people, one of which was my friend from the start of the dream, and my notes say something about an old woman -- I think she's the one who cursed us>

After that I'm with a friend of mine, and we're going to a reunion of old school friends. Just before going into the house where the reunion is happening, I look at a paper sign on the window mentioning Anna, a person I knew when I was really really small and had all but forgotten about. I stop for a moment to think about this, then some people inside see us and quickly invite us in. I see a ton of people I used to know, and greet them all warmly.

I find myself in a different place, still with my friend. It's the last day, and we're both fully aware of it. My friend is pretty panicky and seems to have some last minute ideas on how to remove the curse, but I think we both get erased from existence, although I don't remember this part too well.

In another "last day," I'm at my old high school, and I'm frantically searching in the library for any books that can help me get more information about this curse and removing it. I find a book with some interesting symbols/runes that I try to memorize in hopes that they will be useful. I also talk to someone (J.) about my situation -- he's sympathetic but doesn't really have much he can do to help.

At some point, I have a sort of revelation about how to beat the curse, but it's also just a few moments before the day ends. I run up to the roof of the school, and there are two sort of machines (they looked like vending machines) that I'm trying to get to. However, this sort of large witch-looking person appears and attacks me, trying to block me from getting to the machines long enough for me to get erased. She's very strong but I finally take her down. I'm not sure exactly how (from the machines, I think? or was it something I found on the witch?), but I find out some sort of secret password that I can use on a computer to remove the curse. The password was composed of several of the emoticons ":{" and "}:". I think the password was "}::{" although I also remember thinking it was 6 characters, so maybe not.

Anyways, I realize that I'm about to be blotted out of existence and don't have time to type the password, so I write it down on a piece of paper which I will somehow be able to access when I relive this day. Suddenly everything goes pitch black -- I'm completely gone, although in a sense I'm still aware. The day then restarts, and I get the piece of paper where I wrote the password. I think it takes me a while to remember what it was for, but I succeeded in removing the curse once I figured it out.

Nonetheless, I relived a different version of the day, where I was once again trying to remove the curse but had found a different way. It was night time and I was in the streets of some suburb, once again running out of time. I sprinted to a house which was owned by an old friend of mine. I quickly went to his room, and he seemed to know all about my situation and how to remove the curse.

He told me I only had a few minutes left, and proceeded to deploy a small basketball hoop that was on a wall of his room. He handed me a a ball and showed me where to stand -- all I had to do to remove the curse was make one free throw from here before my time ran out. I shot maybe like eight times, and missed every single one. For some reason, I just couldn't hit the shot, even though the basket wasn't far away. The ball usually just hit the left side of the rim. I looked back at my friend and asked him for help: suddenly, a pure white aura appeared around his eyes, and some sort of white energy went towards me. I absorbed it (I think I might have swallowed it?) and immediately felt better, then made the free throw.

As the ball went through the net, I exhaled and felt a very strange but pleasant sensation. It was like my entire body/tension deflated as the curse was removed from me. I fell back onto the bed behind me, and suddenly saw all the events of the dream (or at least, what seemed to be the events of the dream) flash backwards in time very quickly before my eyes. The last thing I remember is something about an old woman, apparently named Ann Parila. I think I woke up after that.

Whooooo, another MILD attempt last night. I woke up around 630 AM, stayed up 10 minutes, and the result was a sort of lucid dream about an hour later. The 10 minute thing seems to be working pretty well, but I may need to stay up a little longer or be a bit more active during the 10 minutes, because I still feel like I'm falling asleep almost instantly when I lie down again.

Then, this morning when I got out of bed, at first I didn't remember that many dreams, but I got into a strange half-sleepy mode where I could suddenly remember a LOT of dreams from last night. This happens to me sometimes at night when I'm falling asleep, I'll suddenly start remembering a bunch of old dreams in a chain. Anyways, here they all are!



#1011:
Date: July 13th, 2011
Length: 6 minutes

I began the dream in a sort of grocery store. After a few moments, I was (partially) lucid; I think I did a nose-plug RC. I tried to stabilize everything and get into a clear mindset. I remembered one idea I had to help me focus and become fully conscious: remembering some things I'm doing in the coming week IRL. I only managed to recall two of them before losing attention, and I don't remember exactly what they were. I also switched to thinking in French for a while.

A friend of mine appeared to my left, and showed me a table with a whole bunch of food and stuff, inviting me to dig in. I started with a weird sort of bar of hard candy, but it tasted very strange so I spit it out. I think I had a slice of pizza and just generally pigged out because I knew it didn't matter and it's always interesting to see how things will taste in a dream.

After this, my recall of the dream is blurry for a while, I remember an Asian girl, a large lake that I considered swimming in but eventually decided not to, and some alternation between day and night. Eventually I ended up in a sort of motel room. The dream got pretty strange from there, so I'll pass on writing up the rest.



#1012:
Date: July 13th, 2011
Length: 4 minutes

This whole dream occurred in some kind of large underground mall/subway station. In the dream, I would repeatedly have to run and jump really fast to get from one side of the station to another. There was an elevator on both ends of the mall that I would go into. I would sprint, slide along rails and doing a whole bunch of acrobatic stuff I probably couldn't pull off in real life.

It was all pretty fun, but I was also scared because I was being chased (by police and other characters), so basically running for my life. Sometimes there was this sort of witch/hag dressed all in black after me. She would occasionally catch up with me and grab me. She had a kind of magical touch and whenever I came into contact with her it was like I was being electrocuted -- I could barely move and it was quite painful. Thankfully, I would get rescued by a mysterious woman who would fight off the hag whenever this happened, buying just enough time for me to run to the escape elevator, which took me back to the start.


Once, while in the elevator I saw a tiny inscription near the buttons, that said something about how this "game" worked: every 3 rounds there would be a more difficult, advanced round (which is where the hag usually showed up). Apparently after 3 advanced rounds it would all be finished. On the last run that I remember, near the start I was approached by a well-dressed Asian man. He apparently worked for the evil corporation that was after me, but had decided to betray them. He led me into a secret area of the mall, and I don't remember what he showed me there.


#1013:
Date: July 13th, 2011
Length: 3 minutes

I was in a city, though at times I was semi-aware of it all being part of a video game. I knew there was some sort of fixed plot I was to follow, somehow related to the movie the Sorcerer's Apprentice (which I haven't seen but whose title I saw the other day). There was a weird tension to the dream, so for a while I was intentionally just walking around doing nothing, kind of afraid of actually starting the plot. I rode on a bus for a while and just looked around, surprised that the city was so big (ie, that the game had such a vast area to explore).

Eventually, I ended up in a dark, creepy bathroom. The stalls were filled with junk, and in one of them I found a really strange pencil. It was somewhat pink and decorated, and it was apparently a wand of great power. I remember taking it, but nothing after that.



And some fragments:

- I was at home, juggling a soccer ball in the back yard. I accidentally kicked it too hard though and it went over the fence. I was about to go get the ball, but the dream ended.

- I was looking on facebook, and I was surprised to see that an old friend was participating in a competition that I'm entering.

- A strange dream where I was exploring what was supposed to be a college campus, but it really just seemed to be some place in the mountains. I think I had a few moments of lucidity, then the rest of the dream just got blurry and weird.

- I was "in" a game similar to minecraft. In front of me was a long bridge, and at the end of the bridge was a giant red sort of laser beam. My friends told me that it was a portal to hell, and that I should just jump into it. When I did, I died and all my stuff dropped down far below. I respawned and tried to go get my stuff, but down where it had fallen was a whole bunch of lava and only a few stepping stones and water. I managed to get down there but struggled to escape and I think I died a few more times.

- A dream where I ended up back at several old places where I supposedly used to live (they were somewhat similar, but none of them actually exist): one was a tiny place with two beds, with another room down the hall for doing things besides sleeping. There was also a depressing 1-room lodge.

MILD last night, no real lucid dreams but good for dream recall!

#1007:
Date: July 7th, 2011
Length: 4 minutes

The dream began at my old high school. I was a floor above the cafeteria, anxious about meeting someone I've known for a long time but never actually met in person. Finally I decided to go downstairs, realizing that I could recognize him but he probably wouldn't recognize me. There was a big crowd of people, and I think I did see him but kind of avoided him.

I kept going down a nearby corridor, and for some reason the dream was now supposed to be an adaptation of the movie Apocalypse Now (which I've never actually seen, though I've read Heart of Darkness). I was in army uniform, and I had a black guy as my sort of partner. We ended up in a sort of bog-like rice paddy area, knee-deep in muddy water.

There was something disturbing about the water -- it was very dark and almost had a life of it's own. Its depth was unpredictable, so you would occasionally mis-step and find yourself underwater. At some point, someone mentioned that the water contained the 7 deadly sins, or something like that... I think the idea was that every time you went underwater you became more corrupted, or something.

Anyways, things just kept getting creepier. We arrived at a long, dark, tunnel and had to wade through it, half drowning on our way through, pulling each other out when we sunk down into the water. We arrived in a sort of sewer system and finally found an exit. It was a nearly pitch black room, with a a large metallic grate/door. We opened it, but when we tried to close it after going through it seemed to lock itself -- this really scared us, as it seemed like the door had a life of its own, the smaller parts moving of their own volition. I don't recall much after that.



I also had a dream where I was outside, and I talked to my mom for a while. I then realized there was something I had to do, and I was maybe a tiny bit lucid, because I decided to fly to where I wanted to go. For a few moments it had that sort of "feeling" that I usually get when lucid/flying. I took off, and my altitude was pretty erratic, but I really enjoyed the flight and the scenery. There was a lake surrounded by small hills near where I took off which was particularly nice and that I made a conscious effort to remember.

Once I got the place I was supposed to go, I think the dream ended... however it feels "tied" to this next dream (maybe it came right after, or the building I landed near was the academy in that dream)



#1008:
Date: July 7th, 2011
Length: 3 minutes

I'm Captain Jean-Luc Picard, apparently, and I'm inside some sort of academy building, here to give a speech for some sort of commemoration/anniversary. The director of the academy greets me and discusses the speech. He hands me a paper, and I realize that he has completely censored and modified my draft of the speech that I gave him (and, which I somehow remembered my dad had helped me with) -- reducing it from 10 to 2-3 pages and basically changing everything I was going to say. I'm outraged by this, so we argue for a while and I basically establish that I'm going to say what I please.

I go to the podium and unpack some stuff I was carrying in preparation for my speech. A few people arrive in the room and take their seats, but overall the audience is quite small -- the director is very disappointed, because he hoped my presence would attract more people. As I look through my notes, I realize that all I have is the censored version of my speech, nowhere do I have the original draft. I panic, because I don't have any of the speech memorized or even know what it was actually about. I try to stall for time, but eventually we've been waiting around for about 50 minutes and the director is losing patience, so I'm forced to begin.

Extremely uncomfortable and unsure what to say, I kind of just babble for a few moments, then walk towards the director and get into a theatrical confrontation with him about censorship and things like that. The dream gets very strange at this point, as we start fighting (both physically and by talking) but sort of both understand that we're doing it for show and as part of the speech. My surroundings kind of morph as we act out different "scenes," all intended to deliver a certain message to the audience. In the end I think they really appreciated the whole show.




I also had some dream involving my brothers and one of their coworkers, and I think fishing?