"Strollin'" - 11/30/2018 (Lucid)

“Strollin'"
11/30/2018

(Lucid)

(I awoke at about 10:00am, used the bathroom, and talked briefly with my mom about it being my Aunt’s birthday. Figuring I had a short while longer to sleep, I lay back down in bed, on my stomach. The sun was coming in, behind my blinds, so I turned away from the rest of my room and faced the wall.)

Shifting in and out of consciousness, I’d heard my old friend M come into my room. He was just rambling on about something, and I – still facing the wall, laying on my stomach – could hear him pacing around the room beside me. It wasn’t until I felt him sit down on the bed, that the sensation actually startled me, and I lifted my head, to turn to look at him. He was no longer there. (At this moment, I’m not sure whether I actually awoke, fully, and turned to look at him, or if I only did so in the dream. In any case, I realized that I had simply been dreaming him, and I turned back around and lay my head back on my pillow.) Shortly after this, I heard my girlfriend walk into the room – much like M had done. She, too, was talking abstractly about something, and I could hear her pacing about the room. Now, somewhat aware that I had been slipping in and out of consciousness, and not bothering to look her way, I realized that she, too, was not really there. Now only very-slightly conscious, but still not quite in a full-blown dream, I continued to lay there, facing the wall of my softly-sunlit bedroom, allowing the hypnagogia to seep in.

Soon, the voices of my mom and aunt could be heard from the dining room, and for a moment, I thought that she’d stopped by for her birthday. Then, I heard a bunch of kids playing, and they were soon coming into my room as if I wasn’t even there. After just lying there a few more moments, listening to them play in my room, I got curious and finally got up and out of bed. I know that the kids were family members, but I don’t remember if they were my actual relatives or just vague representations. They were trying to play my PlayStation so I - still fuzzy and very lightly lucid - turned on the new Spider-Man game for them, and they began to play. While I watched, my perspective got partially sucked into the game, and I watched Spider-Man and Thanos (who isn’t in the actual game) have some epic battle. Eventually pulling myself away from the TV, I decided that I wanted to go explore, now that I was still “pretty sure” that I was dreaming.

I walked out of the room and into an apartment building stairwell (which I knew was odd, since I live in a one-story house). M was there, again, and I think he was continuing with whatever stream of idle talk he had been getting into, back in the room. Stepping over to the stairwell, and largely ignoring him, I decided to actively check my suspicion that I was dreaming, and I jumped up and attempted to hover in place. It wasn’t exactly hovering, but I descended back to the walkway much slower than the normal pull of gravity. With that, I had killed all doubt, and was 100% sure that I was dreaming. Wanting to do some exploring, I vaulted over the stairway railing and slowly floated down to the first floor. The bottom of the stairwell was a mix between a stairway and a living room – more “inside” than “outside,” as most apartment stairwells are. On the far side of this room, there was a front door with decorative glass paneling, and I began to walk toward it, wondering what I was going to do with my lucidity.

Moving closer to the door, I noticed, through the glass, that there was something crossing the walkway. It was a baby stroller – a lone baby stroller, with no one pushing it. It rolled right to the middle of the entryway, just on the other side of the door, and stopped on its own, as if waiting for me to come and investigate it. Of course, I knew where this was going. This was a horror setup, if I ever saw one, but I was not about to let the creepiness bother me. Defying my brain’s suspected attempt to start freaking me out, I walked straight to the door to check out this stroller situation. Instead of opening the door, though, I attempted to walk right through it. By now, the dream was very vivid, and instead of phasing effortlessly through the door, I had to *push* through it, as I sank into it, and it clung to my body like taffy when I emerged on the other side. Walking up to the stroller on the sidewalk, I looked inside and found it completely empty – a bit anti-climactic, but I figured it could have been worse.

Starting to walk down the street, now, I tried to think of something else to do. I thought about DreamViews, and what the task of the month might have been, but I realized it had been a while since I checked the site, and I had no idea what the latest lucid tasks were. Traffic was fairly busy, on the street beside me, with a line of parked cars separating myself from those rushing by.  Rather nonchalantly – looking for some way to use my lucid ability, while not thinking of anything particularly intriguing – I reached my hand out to a parked car and did a sharp upward gesture, flinging the car off the ground and flipping it toward traffic. It smashed down, upside-down, onto a passing car, which then smashed into another car and caused a pretty-intense pile-up in the street, as car after car crashed into the first two. I couldn’t help but marvel at the level of detail in the shattering glass and twisting metal. It was all too realistic. I’m very rarely the type of person that gets caught up in thinking of dream characters as real, sentient beings, but there was a moment where I started thinking about multiple-dimensions and consciousness-based realities, and part of me felt a little guilty for the wanton violence.

Continuing down the street, I came upon a highway on-ramp, and flew up onto the intersecting road. There was an 18-wheeler passing by, and I landed on top of the bed, hitching a ride while it rolled along – rather slowly, for a highway. Stepping toward the back of the bed, I looked down to see that – along with the cargo bed, itself – the truck was carrying a smaller trailer, behind it, which had a household A/C unit sitting atop it. The unit was running, as if it were fully functional, though it obviously wasn’t connected to anything. Watching the fan blades spinning around, beneath the wire grate, curiosity again took hold of me. For no real reason – other than simply wondering what would happen – I jumped off of the bed of the truck and aimed my feet at the A/C unit, smashing down through the grate and into the spinning blades of the fan, completely destroying the unit as sparks flew and the rotating fan blades broke apart on my skin as if I were made of steel. The central column continued to spin, broken blades flapping and sputtering against my body, but ultimately causing no pain. Sufficiently entertained, I pulled myself out of the broken unit and kept walking down the street.

The only other thing I remember about walking around was passing a lake where a small turtle was making its way onto the shore. Naturally, I became suspicious of whatever else might be living in that body of dream-water, and – right on cue – an alligator sprang out of the water, toward me. It startled me enough to make me scramble back from it, but I quickly remembered that none of this was real. I stepped back toward the gator and stuck out my hand, about to let it chomp down on my arm. The closer I got, though, and the more vicious it seemed – thrashing around and snapping its jaws at me – the more apprehensive I got. Opting out of testing the pain factor for a second time, I swung my hand to one side, picking up the gator with telekinesis and flinging it far out into the lake.

It wasn’t long after this, before the dream began unraveling. I found myself back in my bed, in much the same situation as before. M was there, once again, just as before. Getting momentarily caught up in the idea that I had awoken, I realized that the dream had been a long one, and that I was going to start losing my memories of what happened. I immediately grabbed a notepad; dropped back down on the bed, on my stomach, and began writing some notes about what I could remember, from the beginning of the dream. After writing a few words, I remembered that I generally don’t use a paper journal. Again, I realized that I was still dreaming, but I could definitely feel myself beginning to wake. I tried to use the last few moments of the dream to write a few more words on the notepad – trying to solidify as many of the previous events in my mind as I could, before waking. As I was doing this, I felt pressure on the bed, near my feet, and I could feel an ominous, very unwelcome pair of hands creeping their way across the bed and up my legs. Again, I knew that my subconscious was messing with me – looking for one, last scare. More annoyed than frightened, I kicked my feet and yelled at the creepy hands to “get the hell out of here!” and continued trying to jot down as many events from the dream as I could remember until the dream fully unraveled and I (actually) awoke in my bed.

"Dream World Academy Dorm Life" - 04/12/2018 (Lucid)

"Dream World Academy Dorm Life"

04/12/2018

(Lucid)

 (Image Source)

(Having awoken, at about 8:30am; used the bathroom and set the intention on having a lucid dream; I got back into bed and fell back asleep, slipping into a false awakening.)

I sat up in bed, trying to adjust my eyes to the light coming in through the partly-draped window. My bedroom was strangely lit and seemed too dark for the amount of brightness shining from behind the curtains. Remembering that I’d just been fully awake, moments ago, and the room had been filled with sunlight, I deduced that I had done a WBTB and this was a false awakening. I knew I was dreaming. There was a hazy, almost ‘drunken’ feeling, when I looked around, as if I wasn’t fully immersed in the dream state, and I reached out to touch my wall and then ran my hand across my blanket, feeling the texture. At the same time, I repeated to myself “I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming…” (which I continued to do, periodically, throughout the rest of the dream), and I was immediately grounded into the dream – all of the visual details sharpening and making me feel more ‘present’ in the dream state. Leaning across the bed, I went to flip on the light switch, and it didn’t work. I found it slightly amusing that I even assumed it would have.

With this weird ‘light window, dark room’ duality still going on, I stood up and walked over to the window, itself. I raised a hand to the glass, and tried to phase through it, but the window resisted. Having to take a moment to re-affirm that this was still a dream, I tried again, and this time, my hand sunk into the window, up until about the elbow. I pulled my hand back out of the glass and immediately began thinking about what I wanted to do, now that I was fully lucid. I remembered that I wanted to try to find the Dream World Academy and started trying to think of the best way to go about it. Even though I knew I was dreaming, I had a momentary apprehension about roaming around undressed, but I think I quickly pushed the thought aside, because I was soon leaving the room (but I don’t remember if any clothes “materialized” on me or not. I never really thought about it).

Outside of what was, once, my bedroom, I was standing in an enormous hall, that looked like it belonged to the same kind of architecture that I’d seen outside my window. I wondered if roaming the interior of this building would be the best way to go about finding the Academy, or if going outside might be of more help. Deciding on the latter, I turned around and went back into the bedroom, walking back over to the window. This time, I pushed my whole body forward and phased through the window, now standing on a ledge about 5 stories from the ground.

Below, I could see a handful of people going about their business. My first thought was to jump from the ledge but - being that this dream was, now, extremely vivid – I didn’t want to just do something idiotic and impulsive, just because I was sure this wasn’t waking life. Thinking better of it, I slowly began to climb down from the ledge, testing my own body-weight, in order to see if I was able to defy physics without going too far. By the time I was hanging from the ledge, with one hand, I could feel that it was effortless. I seemed to way only a fraction of my actual weight. So, secure that I had enough control over gravity, I let go of the ledge and slowly hovered my way down to the ground.

Right around here, I vaguely remember something about someone’s cats approaching me and climbing all over me – refusing to leave me alone. It got extremely annoying, but didn’t last very long. I ended up going back inside this massive building, now on the ground floor. It had a very “campus-like” feel to it and, though the halls were completely empty of people, I had a feeling that this might have actually been my subconscious mind’s rendition of the Dream World Academy. The more I settled into the thought, the more I wanted to find something to actually confirm it.

I remember visiting 3 rooms, specifically. The first, was sort of a living area, which was the first place that I actually saw people inside. It looked kind of like a two-story apartment, and there were some college-age kids lying around, one of whom was at the fridge, in a tiny, open kitchen. Deciding not to disturb the scene too much, I kept wandering, and came upon a set of double doors. The doors opened into kind of a lounge, where [much-older] people were hanging around. It was more like a “study” room, and it was clear to see that these people were either “professors” or on staff of some sort. One man, with a bushy, gray bed of hair on his head motioned for me to leave them alone and go down the hall to where the younger people were hanging out. Again, not wanting to get too lost in the narrative, I left these people and continued down the hall.

By this time, I was beginning to feel that this place didn’t have a very “Dream World Academy” type of vibe to it. Without really knowing what to expect, as I walked through the [kinda boring, actually] hallway, I began to focus my attention on the desire to get something a little more ‘mystical’ or ‘magical’ out of the environment. Soon after, I was starting to see random Halloween decorations gradually adorning the walls. (I suppose this was my subconscious mind’s way of ‘mystifying’ up the place. Lol.)

When I stepped into the final room, I was surprised to be walking into a full-on college party. It had a dark, almost “Halloween Party” feel to it, but I don’t recall if there were any costumes involved. I didn’t make any immediate moves to interact, and just observed everyone while I walked through the room. There was a pretty large dude serving drinks, who didn’t look thrilled at the way I was studying him, and he grunted “What?” I simply said “nothing,” and kept walking. While navigating through the crowd, I began to remind myself “I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming…” One of the DC’s – a bit of a jock / “bro” – seemed to notice me doing it, and asked me what I was talking about. I told him, matter-of-factly, that what I said was that I was dreaming, and that they were all all figments of my imagination. Apparently, he didn’t take too kindly to that. He started saying stuff like “what?? No we aren’t!” and turned toward the crowd, yelling out “Hey! This guy says we’re not real! He thinks we’re all in his imagination!” I remember growing annoyed with him, but not really caring about the crowd’s response. I just continued on and tried to ignore him.

The next thing I remember is being outside, and riding on what I believe to be another DC’s motorcycle. (I get the feeling that someone let me ride it and that I didn’t just steal it, but who knows? Lol.) During the ride – and the more I got sucked in by the experience – I was beginning to lose lucidity and becoming immersed in the realism. It didn’t take long, though, before the bike started going out of control, and speeding straight toward a concrete embankment which led into a small body of water, in the middle of this city – like a flooded parking lot or something. All I knew was that I couldn’t stop, and I was about to drive straight into the water at a high speed.

Suddenly, I remembered, again, that this was all a dream. Just as the bike splashed into the flooded area, I leapt from the seat - vaulting over the handlebars and attempting to levitate myself over the water. My feet hit the deep water below me, but instead of sinking, I slid across the water, as if it were a slip-n-slide, coming almost to a hovering stop before focusing more on lift and flying up and off of the wet surface. Soon, I was flying through the city, between the high buildings on either side of me.

Maybe a dozen stories above the street, I flew toward an intersection, trying to think about what else to do, before the dream ended. No sooner did I begin to think about my options, than I saw two figures jump across the gap between the buildings at the crossroads – right across my path - and land on the rooftop off to my left side, without breaking momentum. As they ran across the top of the building, I made a quick left turn and followed, dropping down on the roof and running after them. They were robots, apparently – visually similar to something from Chappie or Real Steel – and the soon noticed that I was chasing them. Immediately, one of them turned and ran back to confront me, seemingly providing interference while the other continued to make its escape.

The robot dashing toward me (which was bright red, and larger than the other) was obviously not about to try and communicate, so I squared up in a Muay Thai stance and clashed with him. (This was the first dream fight I’ve had, in a long while, where I could actually remember a lot of the blow-by-blow. Lately, the details of most of my fights have been hazy, at best, and almost completely forgotten, most often. This was very vivid and intense, though.) There was a lot of punching and dodging, and we were perfectly playing off of each other, as if it was a choreographed, cinematic fight, but the one thing that really stood out was the first time I landed a roundhouse kick - right to the robot’s torso - and felt the kind of painful, metallic *CLANG*, against my shin, that made me second-guess whether going all out on this robot, even in a dream, would be more unpleasant than adventurous. The fight went on for a short while, but my attention began wandering over to the robot that had gotten away, wondering if I could defeat this present threat in enough time to catch up to the other robot and find out what they might have been up to, in the first place.

It was right around this moment of scattered focus, that the dream unraveled and I woke up. 

========================

Side Note: I find it funny that the big robot I fought was bright red, which is the same color as the stand-up kickboxing pad I practice on, in my garage. Lol.

"Beyond Batman" - 02/27/2007 (Lucid)

"Beyond Batman"

02/27/2007

Dream #2

(Lucid) 

  

Had another DILD, last night. I vaguely remember a lot more happening, before all of this - which had something to do with Batman and Robin - but right now I can't be too sure about the events. What I do know is that my first real memory, of this dream, was of being crouched on a pillar, high over nighttime courtyard, of sorts, when I figured out I was dreaming. I remember how much more aware I felt, upon this realization, than in the past couple of DILDs I've had. I could feel myself getting giddy at the sensation. Haha.

The first thing I did was look at my hands; they had little pink and yellow spots all over them. Once I looked away, again, I couldn't believe how much more clear everything had gotten. It was like the entire dream world - which had seemed purely visual, only a moment ago - expanded to all five senses. I was now completely immersed in the dream - to a level that (even after having had so many lucids in my lifetime) astonished me. So much, was this feeling of wherewithal, that - realizing that I'd never actually experimented with taste, while dreaming (I don't even know if I've ever tasted anything in a non-lucid), I licked the back of my hand, impulsively. It tasted just like real skin - somewhat bland and coppery.

Looking around my surroundings, a bit more, I deduced that this park/courtyard belonged to some deviant organization or corporation, and I had been on a mission, before becoming lucid. I can't remember if I actually was Batman or not, but I immediately imagined how much fun swinging around on grappling hook would be. I held up my hand and looked across the way, to another high pillar. At first, I tried to make the hook and rope just shoot out of my hand but, when that didn't work, I figured I'd have to be a little more practical about it. I put my arm down to the side and imagined Batman's grappling gun. When I picked my hand back up, into my field of view, I was holding it. The transition was pretty effortless, and I pulled the trigger and launched a grappling across the gap.

I started swinging around, from pillar to pillar - landing; firing at another spot; and continuing to swing without the slightest fear of gravity. It was just as much fun as I thought it would be! At one point, though, I swung low enough for my feet touched the grass. This activated some kind of security system, equipped with lasers and machine guns. An unfamiliar woman came out of nowhere and, at first, was trying to detain me. Around this time, I feel that it dawned on me, what it was I was doing in this facility, in the first place, but I can't remember, now.

She was soon chasing me around this courtyard, shooting at me with some sort of electric gun-thing of her own. After a while, though, during our cat-and-mouse, we'd started exchanging some dialogue and, eventually, was actually helping me carry out whatever my mission was. The security system had turned on her, and we found ourselves high up, in this tower overlooking the courtyard, hiding from the gunfire that was trained on our position. She told me where [whatever it was I was looking for] was hidden - in the center of a group of columns that circled around, what looked like, some sort of large, metallic sculpture.

I didn't even let her finish talking - getting all antsy and excited, once again - and I just dove out of the tower window. I could hear her scream something like "No wait!!!" while I shot another grappling hook and swung downward, at an angle, landing sideways on one of the columns, kinda like Spider-Man (though I can't remember whether I was actually sticking to the wall or just hanging on). Unexpectedly, the metallic sculpture thing suddenly started whirring and moving. A long, rectangular portion swung upward, to one side, and then turned in my direction. Now, only about 10 feet away from the nearest end of this now-raised cylinder, I could see that and I was staring down the barrel of a enormous, high-tech cannon.

From above, the girl screamed something that implied she'd been trying to tell me it was a gun, but I don't remember what her outburst was. Immediately, I jumped off of the pillar I'd been perched on, just as it exploded from an explosive round fired from the cannon.

(There feels like a gap in my recall right around here, but afterward...) Next thing I know, the woman was flying a helicopter and I had shot a grappling line to the bottom of it and was hanging on while she carried us away from the facility. While hanging, my mind began wandering and I suddenly got the urge to experience being one of my original RP characters, which I've never done before in a dream. I dropped off of the rope, into free-fall, and landed softly on a high rooftop - which had really cool architecture, like a cathedral or something - and I was thinking about how to do this. I was kind of apprehensive about spinning a new scene, because I hadn't had much luck with it in the past, but I decided to try it anyway. 

Standing up straight, upon the angular rooftop, I held out my arms and spun around as fast as I could. At first, I was just watching the world blur, but then, I closed my eyes and thought of being somewhere else, with the intention of turning into my character. Unfortunately, I also had fear of waking up, in the back of my head, and I think that's what caused me to wake up, instead.

"Portal-Painting Power Struggle" - 03/05/2018

“Portal-Painting Power Struggle”

03/05/2018
Dream #2

(Pic Source) 

This was a false awakening, in which I “awoke” in my bed, to find out that were other people there. Apparently, they had stayed the night and were also waking up, on a mattress in the middle of the room. I recognized my daughter as one of them, and the others seemed like little cousins or friends of the family, or something of the sort. The smallest one was little more than an infant and, once he had finished playing with the others, he crawled over toward me. When I picked him up, I noticed that the child was disabled and disfigured; missing one eye - and, I think, an arm - and generally looking to be in pretty-horrific shape. Despite my reflexive, momentary revulsion at the unexpected sight, I continued to hold the boy and to play with him while we sat on the bed, trying not to pass any judgement or make any assumptions about why he looked this way. 

There was a large painting, hanging on one of the walls of the bedroom, and I eventually walked over to it. Two cats were perched upon the top of the frame, one of them a kitten that was little more than the size of a mouse. At one point, I think the kitten fell off and I could feel its tiny claws as it scurried up my leg and back on top of the frame, where it had been. Somehow, I came to find out that I could put my hand through the painting (though I wasn’t lucid) and, soon afterward, my head. It was, apparently, some kind of portal, and on the other side, it was some dark, derelict hallway, with seemingly ancient tools and artifacts hanging around. I could barely see them in the dim light that only seemed to come from the side of the portal with my bedroom. With a strange sense of “this is all normal,” but too timid to walk fully through the portal, I grabbed one of the nearest artifacts – a spearhead-looking object with thick, round, decorated bulb between the two ends - and pulled my upper-body back through the portal and into my bedroom.

Either the people in the room had aged, or they were a completely different group, but I began telling them about the portal and what I found. (I don’t really think my daughter was still on scene, at the time.) They were all really interested and one of the girls said she wanted to try it. I told her that it was "just like lucid dreaming; you just imagine the painting isn't there." (Way to miss that dream sign!) She gave it a shot, stuck her head in and then back out, excited about what she'd seen. They followed me, while I walked to the living room (which was unfamiliar to me), and set the relic on a fireplace mantle. Surprisingly (now that I'm awake), I started telling them about the history of the relics, and how some people in history - like my ancestors or something - traveled to that other world and came back with similar items. After a little more discussion about what else might be on the other side of the portal, my “guests” suddenly changed their demeanor and became frantic and aggressive, sounding off, with alarm, about how they’d “found the portal" and the item(s) they apparently needed, in order to resurrect some evil witch from whatever realm existed beyond the portal.

They attempted to grab the relic, just as I pulled it back down, off the mantle, and we began started struggling over possession of it. During the scuffle, the group began chanting some kind of incantation, trying to rush along the resurrection of this entity, before I could pry the relic from them. While they chanted, a glowing, red hole opened up in the floor of the living room, and a wailing, ghostly woman shot up out of the ground and started flying around the space over our heads. I think the group of subordinates figured they had done their part, because they either let go of the object or I was able to pull it from them. The witch swooped around over me and tried to grab at the object. I did whatever I could to keep it from her, but I wasn’t able to get away from her, because she was just flying too fast for me to move very far, in any direction. Finally, she made what appeared to be one final dive toward me, shrieking and stretching her hands out, to either grab for the relic or attack me, head-on. With no other option, I did the first thing that came to me, instinctively; I lunged forward, to intercept her, slipping the sharpened point of the object passed her hands and stabbing her directly through the face with it.

Instantly, she crashed down to the floor, in her own blood, dead.

Everything fell silent, and I looked back over to the group that had summoned her. They wasted no time in turning around and bolting for the front door. Even though they got away, I was left with the overwhelming feeling that they would be back, again, at some point.

"Skipping Class at DWA" - 02/25/2018 (Lucid)

“Skipping Class at DWA”

02/25/2018

Dream #2

(Lucid)

 (Pic Source) 

(I’d awoken at about 4am and was up for about 10 minutes, before laying back down. Remembering my intention to try to search for the DreamWorld Academy – a fun activity/project, that many of us at DV had done, for some time – I began to focus on the environment where I’d last seen it, in a previous lucid dream, which can be read, here. Sometimes we have light, ambient music playing through the night, but the room was quiet, aside from the sound of my girlfriend breathing. With this in my conscious mind, I focused on the sound of her breath, as well, and attempted to incubate her into the dream, as a dream character. After a short while, I fell back asleep, and initially had one dream about trying to get a drink from a leaky fridge. Then, I slipped into another…) 

The first thing I remember was being on a waterfront ledge, with my girlfriend. It was set on the outskirts of a big city, and felt a lot like being down near the water of the Lincoln Memorial, when we took our D.C. trip, lately. While walking along the water, I realized that I was dreaming. I’m not quite sure what tipped me off, but I think I just realized that I didn’t know where I was. (What I didn’t realize, though, that the waterfront setting looked a lot like the area outside the DreamWorld Academy, the last time I saw it in a dream. If I would have looked around, with this knowledge, I likely would have found it, immediately. Instead, as is so often is the case when becoming lucid, I got sidetracked.) 

I told this “projection” of my girlfriend that I was dreaming, and attempted to coax my subconscious into maintaining lucidity by telling Her to repeat that she was dreaming, over and over (which I often do, myself, to keep the awareness fresh in my mind). She started repeating it to herself and we continued to walk long the water. Coming to the edge of the platform upon which we were walking, I saw a small gap between us and the next platform, and decided to try to walk across the water. Not wanting to add any complications with getting her to follow me, I picked my girlfriend up and took a step off of the ledge, trying not to think about the softness of the water and touching down onto it. My feet sank just a few inches below the liquid, but I focused on forward motion and began to walk as if I was only in shin-deep water, though I could feel nothing between my feet. Soon, I’d floated my footsteps to the other side and flew up to land on the other platform. Before long, we were walking through the parking lot and I was trying to think of what else to do before I woke up. I thought that bike-riding could be a fun adventure in a lucid dream, but she protested and I didn’t want to sour the moment, so I decided we could go for a drive, instead, and just explore wherever the dream took us.

Next thing I knew, we were speeding down a highway. Night had turned into day, and there was a lot of traffic on the road. Immediately, I thought of the Matrix: Reloaded, and decided to have some freeway fun. Knowing that it would be too hard to keep track of my DC girlfriend, once the dream got busier, I left her sitting in the passenger seat and either phased up through the roof or called through the sunroof. (I can’t remember which.) Now, standing on the roof of the car, which was still speeding down the freeway, I lunged forward and hit the pavement running, super-speeding up the road and passing the cars in my way. Still thinking about the Matrix, my subconscious mind brought about chaos as the cars in front of me started crashing into each other and piling up. I attempted not to break stride and began jumping over them and dodging them while they flipped and spun my way, at one point running sideways along the bed of an 18-wheeler in order to avoid another wreck. Before me, I saw the two big rigs from the actual movie, slamming head-on into each other and causing the same, slow-mo explosion from the film. I jumped onto the bed of the nearest truck and then launched myself into the air, flying above the explosion and seeing a warped, surreal view of the cityscape as it dropped away, below me.

I don’t remember landing, but I was soon walking another city street, this time with lots of other people, doing their own thing. Lucidity was fading in and out, and I was beginning to just “go along” with the dream. Suddenly, a tall, light-skinned black guy with a bushy beard; a jacket and hoodie; and an obvious, “up-north” swagger stepped out of the crowd and walked up to me. Mysteriously, he said something about having to talk to me, later, and sifted back into the crowd. Still not quite sure of what my conscious state was, at this time, I soon found myself in a classroom. (I didn’t even realize that I’d been looking for the DW Academy, so the classroom went completely unnoted.) The same guy popped up, again, and I instantly became lucid, when I saw him. He stepped to me, again, and said something like “you ate it twice, in this dream” or “you did it twice in this dream.” (Something like that.) I really didn’t know what he was talking about but, intrigued, I asked him his name. Still talking like a hip, but nonchalant, New Yorker, he said his name was something like “Saultello, the Great.” I wrote it down on a notepad, in order to try and help in remembering it, once I woke up (which I often do. I don't remember the exact way I spelled it, but I believe it was "Saultello").

The scene changed (or there is a gap in my memory), and I remember sitting on a curb and talking to some old man. The sun was going down and everything was a dark orange hue. The man was rambling about something, but my lucidity kicked in again, and I instantly stopped paying attention to him. I realized that I’d been dreaming for a long time and started going back over my memories of everything that had happened, to keep them fresh in my mind until the dream faded and I woke up.

"Burglars of a Feather" - 04/20/2010 (Lucid)

"Burglars of a Feather"

 04/20/2010
(Lucid) 

I was at some museum/gallery type of establishment and was stealing valuable artwork. I believe my partner in crime was my friend TA, but she didn't quite look like herself. I could just kinda 'tell' that it was her.

The gallery looked, strangely, like a high school or something, and after we'd stolen two paintings, we were sneaking back through the halls to make our getaway. I'd suddenly gotten the worst feeling, that this was just a horrible idea (imagine that. Lol), and I was starting to go over the possible consequences of our caper, in my mind. No sooner did I have this doubt, than alarms began to blare, around the building. We had been found out, before we were able to flee the gallery, and I knew that armed guards would, soon, be heading our way.

We abandoned all concept of stealth and ran like hell, carrying our rolled-and-tubed pieces of stolen artwork. The last room I remember being in was the gymnasium. We ran across the entire floor and, just as we got to the other side, I frantically deduced that I was dreaming. Our running stopped, just before reaching the doors on the far side of the gym, and I quickly told her to take my hand. She didn't quite get it, at first, but I told her about how I was just dreaming and was going to get us out of here. She gave me her hand and I jumped straight up, phasing through the ceiling. Ascending, at breakneck speed, we were instantly among the clouds, where we hovered, for a moment, looking out over the ocean of clouds, below us, and the sun as it set low on the horizon. Everything was blue and gold and white, and it was all quite amazing. TA was completely in awe of everything, and we just remained at that altitude and enjoyed the scenery, for a while.

Later, we were in a car, or some other vehicle, looking over the artwork we had stolen. By this time, though, I was no longer lucid. The piece she'd taken was very basic; the cold, geometric type of 'modern art.' Mine was much more detailed and organic, but I can't remember what it was a picture of.

"Assault and Batteries" - 04/22/2010

"Assault and Batteries"

04/22/2010

The first thing I remember from this dream was getting into a huge argument with some really arrogant chick. Out of nowhere, in the middle of our argument, she hauled off and hit me in the nuts with some kind of blunt object. The pain was excruciating. I fell to the ground, tensed up and trying as hard as I could not to succumb to the pain. I could not deny it, though. Every few seconds I would let out this guttural scream - waves of agony rippling all throughout my torso, as if someone had my balls in a vice and was giving the crank a quick, periodic twist (much like the way young Raizo reacted, in Ninja Assassin, when his teacher gave him that finger strike to the gut. It was seriously some of the worst pain I've ever felt in a dream.) After what seemed like forever, I was able to stagger to my feet. In a rage, I instinctively lunged at her. My only impulse (which was pretty inconsistent with my waking character) was to make this chick pay for attacking me in that way. Everyone in the crowd around us held me back, though. Still staving off the pain in my loins, I yelled and kicked and slung all kinds of obscenities at this girl, as a group of people dragged me away. One of the things I remember telling her was that she better not let me find her alone in the street. I was just utterly enraged and wanted to completely destroy this girl. Lol.

A little bit of time passed, and I stayed on the lookout for her, still seething. Finally, we just happened to pass each other, walking down a busy, city sidewalk one day. We didn't recognize each other until we were practically right beside one another. We both took a few more steps, before it actually registered, and then I spun around. The last thing I remember of this part is running toward her for an all-out attack. I don't actually remember what happened when I reached her, though. The next thing I knew, I was on a prisoner's compound. (Maybe I should have just let the b**** go! LOL) The penalty, for being in this 'death camp', was that we were made to survive these games in which we are hunted by various creatures. Indoors - and underground - this facility was very high tech. It had laboratories and security annexes; the works. Above ground, the facility looked more like a junk yard, or a post-apocalyptic compound of some sort. The prisoners were mostly made to stay above/outside, while we were observed by our captors, who remained in the other sectors.

First, we were made to fight Xenomorphs (from the Alien movie series). They chased us around the compound, in packs, and we had the little locator devices from the movies, which helped us keep track of where they were. We were not given weapons, though, and we had to simply survive, unarmed. Having endured the hunt, and once the attack from the xenos died down, I had figured that we were finished with our trial. Suddenly, a huge mech came around a corner. We all immediately scattered, and the mech fired a missile into the structure that we had been hiding behind, just moments before.

After the appearance of this mech, the shit really hit the fan, and we found ourselves running from even more mechs, robots, and all kinds of other "Terminator"-type technology. We all decided to take the fight down into the bowels of the facility and broke back into the base. The killer robots followed us inside, and we played a really intense game of cat and mouse, within. We were also able to locate the robots with the same locators that we used for the xenomorphs. Being one of the only remaining survivors, I traveled deeper and deeper into this enormous facility. I eventually came across a large community of other (relatively) 'innocent' people, who were living down in some of the furthest levels from the surface. There were men and women of all backgrounds, and they were even cohabiting with some docile robots, which makes me believe that this dream was set so far in the future that robots were already an integral part of society. There was an explosion behind me, and one of the bigger robots had, somehow, squeezed his way through the halls and had broken into the towering doors, scoping around for me. 

Again, everyone scattered. Even though I didn't know these people well, they knew that I was being hunted, and they decided to help me get away from the killer robot. Can't really quite remember how, though.

"Police Futility" - 01/22/2007 (Lucid)

”Police Futility”

01/22/2007
(Lucid)

(Awesome lucid dream. Unfortunately, I woke up at about 4 o’clock, after the dream, and didn’t get up to jot down any notes before falling back asleep, so I’ve forgotten a few things near the end. I woke up again, shortly after, though, so I was still able to retain quite a bit!) 

So, T and I were on a road trip, somewhere. We stopped into a gas station, late at night, and I slightly remember making some small talk with a girl that was working there. It wasn't long, before we were back in the car and on the road again. Soon after, it was day time and we were driving down the interstate. I can’t remember what the reason was but, some time during our drive, a motorcycle cop pulled up behind us and turned on his lights. We pulled over - onto the left shoulder instead of the right - and parked on the wide, grass median, in the center of the two opposing flows of traffic.

The cop came over and started being a real prick. I think he was accusing us of smoking, or something, because he told us to wait over by his bike so he can search the car. While he was looking over the car, I start getting suspicious of things, but not enough to realize I’m dreaming. Then, right on cue, the cop said “Well, well. What is this?” and he pulled out my dream journal, which happened to be in a notebook. (Funny, because I don’t have a paper journal, IRL) Laughing while walking in our direction, he began thumbing through the journal and then, out of nowhere, just started ripping pages out of it, tearing them to pieces and throwing them all over the median. I was infuriated. So much so, that even as T was looking at the cop, I could practically hear him thinking “Oohh, you shouldn’t have done that.”

I don’t even remember what happened next but, the next thing I knew, the cop was lying on the ground, face down. It was right around here that I realized I was dreaming (however, I can’t remember if I became lucid and then took out the cop, or did it before. I think I took out the cop first, though. Anyway...). The second I realized I was dreaming, I looked at my hands - which were hard and dry - in order to stabilize the dream, repeating to myself “I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming,” to keep the thought fresh in my mind. T was looking quizzically at me, wondering what was going on. I told him that I was dreaming, but that we still needed to get out of here because I had a feeling our trouble with the cop wasn’t over. Just as I said that, the cop was beginning to slowly rise from the ground. Since he was between us and the car, I looked the other way and the first thing I saw was the police motorcycle. My eyes about lit up like a kid in a candy store.

I ran to the bike and told T to jump on. At first, I couldn’t get it started and the cop was then running toward us, closing the gap while I continuously tried to kick-start the bike (which is weird because police bikes don’t have kick-starts, that I know of). Finally, as the cop was just beginning to come in range, I got it started and we took off. I remember how short and stubby the handlebars felt as I was pushing up through the gears. In seconds, we were flying down the grassy median, closer to the oncoming lane than the correct one. Suddenly, looking at all the cars whizzing passed us, to the left, it dawned on me: I’ve always wanted to try this in a lucid dream...

Thinking of Trinity in The Matrix: Reloaded, I suddenly swerved into oncoming traffic, with the motorcycle, zig-zagging left and right as cars veered and skidded out of our way. Ah, man. One of the most insane things I’ve experienced in a LD and it seemed to last about 20 seconds or so, before I cut back across the median, to the right side. We kept on riding until we were back in our town (though it didn’t really seem like our town), pulling up in some unfamiliar apartment complex, where my mom apparently lived. My lucidity had begun flickering, during the ride but, as soon as I got inside the apartment, the first thing I did was focus on my hands again and repeat “I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming,” bringing my lucidity, and the scene around me, into much more clarity.

My DC mom was getting ready for a party, and my aunt and some other relatives were about to come over. I was still thinking about the whole cop thing and was wondering if we’d seen the last of them. T suddenly got a call on his cell phone, which was this really futuristic pocket computer sort of thing. We thought it might have been the cops, but it was someone in his family. A few moments later, the apartment phone rang. Mom picked it up and then called me over to take the call. I picked up and, this time, it was the police. I recognized the voice and, to be specific, it was Morgan Freeman. (Lol.) He told me, calmly, that the entire complex was now crawling with SWAT and that my friend and I needed to come out and turn ourselves in, before we made things worse for ourselves – in all his typical, soothing, Freeman-esque nature. I found this hilarious, though, seeing as how I was now 100% lucid again, and figured it was time to have some more fun.

As we were heading out of the apartment, I was talking to T, coaching him on how he was just a DC and we both had “lucid abilities,” in hopes that he was going to be able to do all the things I could do, as it would make what was about to happen all the more interesting. He got the picture, and we both started walking downstairs. He was walking in front of me and kept going, even after I stopped, halfway down the last set of stairs. I glanced over to one side and saw Morgan Freeman standing in the hallway, dressed like his detective character in Se7en and facing away from me (while I was still slightly faced away from him), as if we were two arch-enemies in some gritty anime thriller that were having their last civil conversation, before completely obliterating each other. I can’t remember exactly what he was saying, though. Finally, I came down the rest of the stairway and turned to face him. He, himself, was walking toward me.

I started walking backward in the hallway, while we were still talking, backing myself out toward the field that was in front of the apartment complex. While doing this, I was telling him that I wasn’t worried about him, or the rest of the SWAT team (whom I could see surrounding the field, out of the corner of my eye) because I knew I was dreaming. I tried to warn him that he really didn’t want to start a fight with us. (The irony of trying to show a DC mercy isn't lost on me. Lol.) He wasn’t buying it, though, and was his cool, calm, collected self - dismissing my words as psychotic banter, of course. I looked back, behind me, and saw T standing in the field, waiting. When I turned back to Detective Freeman, I gave him a smile and suddenly began levitating backward, with my arms rising out to the sides. I said something smart, like “Suit yourself,” and his face twisted in subtle surprise. Hovering backward, passing Tony, I glanced over to him and said something like “You ready, man?” He said “Yup,” and suddenly levitated into the air, as well. Jesus, did we ever show off!

We started flying around this huge field, watching the SWAT stand by and stare at us in awe. Neighbors started coming out onto their decks and balconies, and we could hear them gasping and shouting. Pretty soon, we had the attention of everyone in the complex. I hovered passed one balcony and actually saw my ex and her husband (which isn’t that strange because they are, more or less, the only people I know that live in an apartment complex, at the moment) and they were actually cheering us on. Now, in mid-air, I held up one finger and focused, slinging my hand out as a bright orange streak shot out of my finger and exploded, down on the ground, though I wasn’t aiming for anything in particular. Taking the cue, T began doing the same thing, and we started firing energy blasts in all directions. My purpose, really, was to see if I could get all the DC cops to run away screaming, as I hadn’t really planned on slaughtering them. Some ran. Others didn’t. I did end up shooting one guy in the chest and he just exploded. The rest of the SWAT guys standing close to him only stood there like statues, though.

I redirected my attention to their cars and started blowing them up, one by one. Eventually, I’d begun thinking less and less of the cops surrounding us, and I was just caught up in how much fun I was having, using these powers. I wanted to try something else. Something Big. I looked up at the sky and was reminded of the Hammer of Dawn (a huge satellite laser, from the game Gears of War, which I played for the first time, this weekend). I held my hands up to the sky, focusing hard on how to make this work. Visualizing this beam of light, I saw the clouds above begin to swirl, funneling just a moment before spreading slowly outward from the center of rotation. It had been near sundown and the sky was already growing dark, so it was so much easier to see the bright white ball of light growing in the heavens. As soon as I figured it was well-enough developed, I swung my hands down toward the earth, as if I was pulling the light down from the sky with my fingers. A bright red-orange beam exploded down out of the sky, a few miles behind the apartment complex. I heard it hit the ground, in the distance, and saw the top end of a massive explosion budding up, over the tops of the apartment building in front of me. I remember trying this at least twice, before waking up into a false awakening, where Tony and I were telling our friend JL about the ordeal we'd just been in.

Eventually, the retelling of the situation actually influenced the dream into dissolving back into the same scenario. Before I knew it, T and I were right back to battling the cops, in the apartment complex. This time, though, I wasn't lucid, and the narrative just carried me through the rest of the dream (which was much harder to remember, after I'd lost lucidity).