This is already in my dream journal; but I wanted to post it here to get reactions on it. And because I managed, partially, the October tasks. Of course it's been November for two days... Typical me!

11/02/2005 3:40 a.m. Lucid

Tasks accomplished for the first time:
--Flying on my back
--Turning a light on mentally
--Trick-or-treating

Tasks accomplished that I've done before:
--Eating and tasting the food
--Looking at several clocks
--Controlling a fall
--Prolonging a dream

I had gone home for Christmas; and the older of my two sisters, my mother, and my last stepfather were there. As usual, when I didn't do my chores quite right, he began to yell at me and put me down like he always used to do; but for some reason he was afraid to actually hit me, and when he had me pinned to the wall he slapped me so lightly that I barely felt it.

I told my mom that, "If he would just respect me as a person, I would want to respect him, too. But he doesn't."

When he left the house I went downstairs and yelled to my mom that I was leaving. "Where, outside?" she asked. "No," I replied, "Kentucky!".

I went to bed. There was a very large grating in the wall and a boy I knew was named David (I had never met him before) hid there, waiting to kill me when I fell asleep. I casually took a very large something-or-other off the wall and prepared to defend myself; but the boy didn't move. I wondered whether he was really set on killing me. I started to pray for him, out loud, hoping to trigger his conscience. I'm not sure what happened after that; probably it worked, because David does not come into the rest of my dream.

[Incidentally, I looked at the walls in my room. They looked just like the ones in college, where parts of them had been painted three times and parts only one. Interesting that I could tell the difference between a wall with one or three coats of paint!]

--Beginning of Lucidity--

I'm not sure how I actually realized I was dreaming. It could have been a false awakening after "going to sleep" in my dream; but I'm relatively good at recognizing dreams just from the "feel" of them so that was probably it.

Still, after I stood up in my room I knew I was dreaming. The room was dark; so when I left it I turned on the light in the hall (via the switch). This reminded me that I hadn't yet tried to turn on a light mentally; so that's what I did with the rest of the house. It worked easily.

Next I tried accomplishing one of the tasks I'd seen on this forum--flying on my back--and had partial success. I tried falling backwards, then slowing my fall, which worked, except that when I finally stopped, I was maybe half an inch above the floor. (The fact that the dream was set indoors and I didn't think of changing it to fly properly could've been another problem.) However, I did manage to move in this fashion, and to tilt my head back, though not as far as to actually see the floor.

At this point my surroundings started to fade and I realized I was no longer getting any input from my senses--it was like floating in zero-g in the dark. I started experimenting with moving my body, which I could do; and then I turned the gravity back on and began falling. At the end of the fall I saw a view of a ceiling (or was it a floor?) somewhere and then I was back in the house.

Looking around the house was my next idea; I looked at the couch, the stereo system, and the walls; and I found them to be as I remembered them from my childhood. (Strangely enough, now that I'm awake I realize they were different, though only in detail rather than in the "big idea" of them.)

I saw a digital clock, and looked at the time: 3:15. I looked away, and was going to look back again; but the dining room had caught my eye and I went to examine it. I saw two clocks there: One said 2:15 (I remembered we had just had Daylight Savings Time) and the other 3:10 (only five minutes off from the first).

I wondered at this, since I had been told that clocks were often different in dreams; and these were remarkably realistic. I reminded myself to check the real-world time when I woke (I did; it was 3:40. Remarkably close, I think--though not nearly as good as when I'm awake and can tell the time within three or four minutes, without a watch. Of course when I'm awake there are a lot more environmental clues.)

I went to the kitchen to try to figure out whether I could taste dream food. I was in a bit of a hurry by this point, knowing that dreams did not last forever and I had already prolonged it once; and had had to be careful to avoid getting too excited. So I took a banana from the fridge, peeled it, and took one bite. I tasted it, though not as strongly as when awake. Texture was right, too.

At this point, I noticed I was wearing a swimsuit. Hmm, I thought to myself, this could be changed to a ballet outfit with the simple addition of a gauzy, ruffly sort of skirt... Which made me think of the second task mentioned here--trick-or-treating.

I closed the fridge and went to the front door, opened it, and found a little boy standing there, wearing a shirt that I think was supposed to be one of those cheap pumpkin costumes that they sell at Wal-Mart. I figured I could take the boy trick-or-treating; I'm too old to trick-or-treat myself, so that would make more sense.

I knew I didn't have a lot of time; so I had to figure out some way to do this before I woke up. Suddenly I had an idea. I told the boy, "Okay, we've got an all-for-one deal going today. You ring the doorbell, and I'll open the door, okay?" So I went back inside, the doorbell rang, I opened the door and gave him a basketful of candy.

"Thanks, Boy," I said (I hadn't had time to ask his name).

Then I thanked God for letting me have such a cool dream, and woke myself up.