Thursday, March 8, 2018

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

“Portal-Painting Power Struggle”
03/05/2018
Dream #2

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)

(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.