Wildman

Ah, feeling quite happy. Last night, after reading up on MILD (including my own previous experiences with it) and "rehearsing" reality checking to things like darkness and water, I decided to try MILD again. I went to bed, reciting "I will have a memorable, vivid and recalled lucid dream tonight." I tried to really take it slow and focus on every word's meaning, visualizing when I could. As I started to fall asleep, it became harder to concentrate on visualizing and meaning, so I just tried to keep repeating the mantra as much as possible. It took me a good while to fall asleep, but as far as I can tell I stuck with it basically until I was sleeping. And it paid off -- 4 dreams recalled (though good recall wasn't really the focus, but I'll take it!), one of which was lucid (not all that memorable, but still) and another of which was close / semi-lucid. Here they are.

#938:
Date: July 2nd, 2010
Length: 4 minutes

I'm in some kind of small city. I step out from the street into some kind of small store, accompanied by some guy I apparently know. For a long time I look around, unsure of what to buy, if anything. The guy ends up talking with the cashier, a girl that he knows. I think he buys a few things. Meanwhile, I start checking out an aisle that has a bunch of books/comics.

After a while I still haven't made up my mind about what to buy, and the others start making fun of me for it. I just kind of laugh and go along with it. The dream is a bit blurry here -- I recall something about stick figures: either one of the comics involved stick figures, or the guy and girl themselves turned into stick figures, I don't quite recall. Regardless, it somehow dawns on me that I am dreaming.

Excited, I step out into the street, and as I walk I try to stabilize everything. I then take flight, into a kind of suburb. After a while I land, and for some reason my surroundings seem extremely familiar, like I've been here before, but I don't think I have. I see two girls nearby, and I think I ended up kissing one of them. Shortly after that my surroundings become quite foggy and strange.

In front and to my right, there's a particularly thick patch of fog I can't see through, and I decide to try diving through and to see where I'll end up. I do so, and the dream sort of goes nuts -- my surroundings turn all dark, and my vision goes to third person for a moment, then my entire field of vision turns upside down and I see myself falling. I'm not positive about how this ended, but as far as I can tell/remember I had sort of a false awakening where some voice was trying to get me to wake up, and after that I actually did wake up in real life.




#939:
Date: July 2nd, 2010
Length: 3 minutes

I'm participating in this sort of worldwide game/contest (at times it feels like a video game, not a "real" thing), that involves accumulating treasure in a very short time, around three minutes I think. At first I see a sort of world map, and several dots indicate places where I can search for treasure. I pick one, and end up in front of some gigantic fish. It goes towards me and eats me whole.

I find myself inside the fish, wondering where I was supposed to find treasure here. After a few moments though, I realize that what the fish is eating is heading towards me, and see that it's treasure -- some kind of golden artifact is the first thing I spot. Instead of staying inside though, I decide to escape the fish. I take out a large knife I happen to have on me, and start slicing away at the "walls" around me. Eventually the fish dies, and I crawl out into some cave whose floor is covered in water.

I take a look at the fish, and realize that it has a bunch of teeth that are actually precious gems. I take my knife and start extracting them (there are about 10). After a few moments, my mom randomly arrives, and she tells me time is running out and I need to quickly grab all the gems I can and leave the cave because a rescue squad is waiting for me outside. I quickly remove the rest of the teeth/gems and start heading out.



#940:
Date: July 2nd, 2010
Length: 5 minutes

It's late afternoon on a sunny day, and it seems I'm trying to walk home. However, I'm in some place that I don't know. The terrain is very open, green, and uneven. I find some old woman, who decides to serve as my guide and help me find my way home. I follow her all the way to some isolated stretch of land very close to a large body of water, which I apparently need to get to the other side of. For a moment, I take a look around. The water is a beautiful blue, and it has suddenly become extremely windy. I realize that I'm going to have to backtrack and walk around the body of water.

I thank the old woman for her help, and tell her I'll find my way from here, not wanting to be slowed down by her and having a rough idea of where I'm headed. As I make my way back, I encounter some sort of large wooden structure with a bunch of ramps on it, serving as a kind of bridge. However, as I start walking on it, it quickly falls apart under my weight. Soon enough, it's entirely broken, and I drop down to the ground, a foot or so below. I realize that this wooden structure was actually part of someone's garden, and perhaps some sort of thing for children to play on that I've now wrecked.

I take a look around. The garden I'm in is part of a very large house, where a party is going on. I quickly walk down some stairs towards the house, and go inside, trying to look like a guest. Once inside, I walk up a large set of stairs, and find myself face to face with the father of the family that lives there. Worried that he'll find out what I did, I try not to look suspicious, and ask him where the bathroom is. I go there, and take a leak. The bathroom door, which I closed, opens for no reason. Shortly after, I see the father just outside the bathroom, and am terrified that he's going to confront me, but he doesn't.

Instead of leaving, I decide to stick around for the party. I go back outside, where there are many people near a large pool, most seated at tables and having discussions. At this point, I seem to realize that this isn't quite real (perhaps the sight of water twice in the dream unconsciously reminded me that it's a potential dream sign of mine). I don't become fully lucid, but get a sense that nothing I do here really matters. With this in mind, I decide to mess around a bit. I randomly sit at some tables and try to barge into the conversations, or act obnoxious/awkward (eg, randomly sit between two people and rest my arms on their shoulders as if we're good friends).

After that, the party seemed to disperse, except for a few guests around a distant table that had tons of food on it. They were standing, having a quiet, sort of suspicious conversation. I ended up going near them, but I don't recall doing anything in particular.




#941:
Date: July 2nd, 2010
Length: 3 minutes

I'm apparently a player for the Golden State Warriors, and we are having some kind of training session in a gymnasium. For reason, Yao Ming is on the team, and he has a broken left arm and is wearing a cast. I don't really recall any other specific players, besides maybe Ellis. The coach organizes a kind of practice game, I think 3on3, one weaker team (mine) against a stronger one (Yao's). I think there were a few people watching us from some windows that gave a view of the street.

We start playing, I think getting pretty handily beaten. We then reach a play where I am defending Yao, and we end up colliding hard, and we both fall to the ground. His broken arm takes a serious hit, and it seems he's badly injured. He gets carried off by medical staff I think, and the training session ends.