"Pencildragon" - 01/17/2017 (Lucid)

"Pencildragon"
01/17/2017 

Dream #2

(Lucid)

I was at some outdoor carnival or festival, held out in some rural field at dusk. Munching on cotton candy while I walked, I spontaneously realized that I was dreaming. Immediately, I was surprised at how much I could smell and taste the cotton candy (I have very few experiences with tastes and smells in lucid dreams), and even though the dream already felt very clear and grounded, I decided to take a few moments to touch my surroundings, running my hand along the wooden frame of a wooden kiosk nearby. Raising my free hand up in front of my face, I saw that my fingers were very wavy, which was a bit at odds with the solidity of everything else around me.

Quickly, I tried to think of what I had planned to do with my lucidity once attained it, before I'd gone to bed. I remembered the Dreamviews.com 'Tasks of the Month' and that I wanted to try the pencil task (which was to "ask a pencil to draw something for you"). I turned back to the kiosk, expecting to find a pad and pencil there, in which I could do the experiment. Sitting atop the counter, I found a pad and a few, loose, colored pencils. I picked up one pencil - blue, I believe - and set it in the center of the pad. Without speaking, I attempted to "will" the pencil to draw something for me. The only thing I remember, about the actual process, was the pencil moving back and forth and making a few scribbles, but it ended up drawing a (quite simplistic) dragon. (One of the art pieces I have been brainstorming on, in waking life, has been a dragon. I haven't yet drawn the final draft, but I did draw a dragon thumbnail, about a week ago).

Satisfied that I had completed the task, I took to the air and flew away from the carnival to do some exploring. While flying over the wide, green fields of the early evening countryside, I looked below me to see an actual dragon, roaming around the landscape and idly blowing plumes of fire at random. It had sort of a cartoonish, video game feel to it (I had been playing PlayStation VR, before bed - no dragon games, though), and felt as if it was just a manifestation of the dragon that was drawn on the paper. I decided not to bother with the creature and continued flying over the field. I don't really remember anything afterward.

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[Edit: Important side-note to add is that this was during a Wake-Back-to-Bed attempt, this morning.]

"Cancelling the Apocalypse" - 01/11/2017 (Lucid)

"Cancelling the Apocalypse"
01/11/2017

Dream Two 

(Lucid)

I was with two other guys, and we were being stalked by the Marvel super-villain, Apocalypse. We were in some tall, unfinished building, surrounded by a cage of open walls and concrete pillars. Apocalypse had this very "Jason Voorhees" type of way of following us; slowly and almost casually, before just 'appearing' nearby, to try and attack us. (I had been watching beta gameplay from the new Friday the 13th game, not long before bed, which I believe inspired the way he gave chase in the dream.) 

On about the 3rd floor of this hollow building structure, Apocalypse appeared and snatched up of the guys in our party, disappearing with him and reappearing somewhere down on the first floor. We could see him through the many openings in the incomplete floors beneath us, holding our ally up by the throat, with his back against one of the support columns. I can't remember exactly what he did to our guy, but I remember it being very vicious and gory, as if he just ripped him apart, with his bare hands, in a shower of blood. Knowing it was too late to do anything about it, we started running again, and before I had a chance to even know where I was going, Apocalypse was back on the third(ish) floor with us, stepping out from behind a corner just as I passed by, and coming straight for me. Having no time to think of a safe escape, and after having seen what he just did to the other guy, I immediately lept from the ledge that I was approaching, still about 3 storeys up - basically resigning to the fact that I was Not going to enjoy the landing.

In a panic, while careening toward the ground below me and preparing for the inevitable onslaught of pain and possible broken bones that awaited, I instinctively realized that this couldn't really be about to happen. This had to be a dream!! Without a moment to second-guess it, I pushed my feet straight down and braced for impact, relieved when I stuck the landing in an almost effortless crouch. I knew that Apocalypse would soon follow behind me, though, so I instinctively lunged backward, throwing my right elbow back and cracking him in the face with it, when he predictably showed up behind me. (Not sure if he was always going to be there, or if my anticipating him being behind me caused him to just 'be there'.)

I didn't stop, though, immediately turning around and rushing him with a barrage of punching combinations to the head and gut, confidently and aggressively driving him back with each solid hit. While in mid-attack, I wondered if I should not get too carried away and try stabilizing the dream before it ended or I lost my lucidity, but I was fired up and didn't want to stop hitting him. It was only a matter of seconds, though, before the dream fell apart and I woke up.

"Ring Totem" - 01/07/2017 (Lucid)

For a while, now, I have been experimenting with using a "totem," inspired by the movie Inception, but without the "shared dreaming" aspect that they use in the movie's fictional world. For the purpose of lucid dreaming, the totem is an object to carry around with you, in waking life, as a reminder to constantly be aware of the concept of lucid dreaming. It can be something to focus on, periodically, while doing reality checks and testing my state, with the goal of having the habit work its way into my dreams and make it more likely that I will associate it with lucid dreaming and realize that I'm dreaming at the time.

My totem is a "magician's ring." (Pictured below.) I constantly rub my fingers on it (similar to touching objects in order to stabilize a dream) and question my conscious state throughout the day. I enjoy that it is magnetic, because it will often "interact" with things without warning, causing me to automatically think about lucid dreaming and spontaneously check my state whenever it happens. The latest bit of success I'd had was in realizing I was dreaming while walking through a hallway at work, where I normally focus on my totem and question my state.

"Ring Totem"
01/07/2017 

(Lucid) 

My earliest memory of this dream was having sex with my girlfriend on the living room couch. Afterward, we were continuing to be flirty in the kitchen, and I went to pick her up by her waist and set her on the counter. When I did so, I realized that she was light as a feather - almost totally weightless. Because of this, I realized that I was dreaming. (I'm glad that she was understanding, when I told her about that part. Lol.) 

Once lucid, I set her down and began to roam about the kitchen, trying to think of what I wanted to do with my lucidity. My usual, first order of business is to stabilize the dream, so I reached out to the wall and ran my fingers along it, taking in the texture and paying a good bit of attention to it. Then, I remembered my totem. I held up my right hand and began to rub my ring with my thumb, looking down at the inscription and anticipating at least some sort of change. (The ring in the pic above is my actual ring.) The text began to glow a bright white, and it helped me to remember that I wanted to try out the ring as something of a conduit for dream "powers".

The room had changed, and I was now walking through an area with other people. Stepping up to one, random DC, I held up my hand, palm out, and attempted to conjure fire from the ring. I got nothing, though. Curious as to whether or not I would find a different hand position more comfortable, I made my hand into a fist and held that out to the nearest person to me, instead. My attempts to shoot flames from the ring had - again - failed, and I got a little frustrated. The last thing I remember was trying a few more methods to conjure fire before the dream, itself, faded, and I woke up.

"Hallway to Haven" - 01/02/2017 (Lucid)

"Hallway to Haven"
01/02/2017

Dream #1

(Lucid)

I was walking through a tile and concrete hallway, metal doors and drawers lining the walls, with the feeling that someone(s) was following behind, searching for me. Eventually, while searching for somewhere to hide, I realized that I was dreaming. (Upon going to work, this afternoon, I recognized the hallway in my dream to be the parking garage hallway I normally do my reality checks in, when I'm entering or leaving the office.) 

The first thing I could think of to do, with my lucidity, was touch one of the concrete structures and ground myself into the dream. Then, I decided to try and change the scenery. Since I've had pretty good luck with creating and utilizing doorways, I turned to the wall and pulled open one of the panels, imagining that there would be some other, random scene within. I don't believe I waited to see if anything showed up, visually. I just moved my head in and 'dove' into the opening, focusing on the intention to simply 'be somewhere else.'

My forward momentum turned into a headlong dive, and I immediately found myself flying over dark blue ocean in midday. I was moving at a high speed trying to keep myself above the surface of the water. I could sense the feeling of being over the ocean becoming more and more overwhelming, and the water, itself - already a strange and almost 'fake-looking' hue of opaque, navy blue - began to form long strands or tendrils, that rose up from the surface like tentacles as I flew just over it. The entire ocean looked a bit like ferrofluid, writhing and undulating beneath me, and it was starting to freak me out.

I turned to find land, and saw a large landmass in the distance, completely surrounded by water. I flew closer and saw that it was a sort of plateau, with a raised center. The entirety of the surface was covered with lush, green jungle, leading up at a gentle incline - over what seemed like a few dozen square miles - to a central point in the center that housed some sort of large castle or fortress. The closer I got to the raised structure at the middle of the landmass, the more I could see that there was something flying about it, circling over the top of the building. A dragon.

The moment I recognized this dragon for what it was, I got the feeling that there was something large coming up behind me - possibly flying, but that could have been moving through the water but standing tall enough to feel like it was breathing down my neck as I flew. Still flying to the island, now trying to escape what was behind me more than what was in front, I saw that all of the color from the jungle trees and tropical landscape was beginning to 'drain' down off of the mountainous incline upon which the building sat. All of the greens and purples, browns and reds that made up the jungle beneath me now began to run like dyed water, down to the ocean that surrounded the island. (It reminded me very much of the painted field from What Dreams May Come, but after someone would have thrown a glass of water on it.)

I don't remember ever touching down on the island or making it to the building.