Wednesday, April 18, 2018

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

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

(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.

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

"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.