"ScarletVision" - 05/19/2022 (w/ Lucid False Awakening)

"ScarletVision"

05/19/2022

(w/ Lucid False Awakening)

In this dream, I was a disembodied observer (like watching a movie), following a street-level detective, as he went around investigating the murders of innocent people by Wanda Maximoff aka "The Scarlet Witch." I don't remember a whole lot of the detail from this early, but I recall him going from location to location, analyzing crime scenes and gathering clues like in a noir crime drama. There were multiple victims, killed for unknown reasons, but any pattern telling why remained unclear. Over time, the detective was starting to get the feeling that something wasn't right about his situation. Things weren't adding up, and there were a lot of unrealistic scenarios that were playing out. He began to deduce that he couldn't, in fact, be experiencing the real world. The entire scene, then, transitioned. 

Instantly, my point of view focused in on a rounded object, lying on a table. I immediately recognized the object to the decapitated head of her android husband, The Vision. My perspective panned out to reveal that the head was sitting on an operating table, in a lab. The lab was dimly lit with a soft, green light, and looked as it would, if someone had simply left for the night. Strewn around the lab, I could see that there was not only the other dismembered pieces of the Vision's body, but that there were also multiple versions of his body - in the same, decimated conditions - lying all over the place.

As my perspective settled on the lab interior, as a whole, I began to see movement in some of the reflective surfaces around the room. I could see brief glimpses of the Scarlet Witch's form - from an arm, in one corner of the lab; to her flowing hair, in another; and a flash of her eyes, in some of the shiny metal equipment, all around. Then, a pair of symbols appeared in a shadowy walkway, which twisted and contorted themselves into a humanoid form, and transformed into Wanda, in full costume. She stared, rather sternly, at the head of Vision that I had first seen, walking over to it. 

She began talking to the head, saying something about how she knew that she wasn't going to be able to keep him in there, forever, explaining (in detail that I can't quite remember) how she had pulled in variants of him from other universes, searching for a "particular" version, which she had - since - been holding in an "illusion," in the conscious mind of his severed head, to keep him busy while she did....something. (I don't remember her purpose.) However, she admitted finding that he was figuring it all out, and she knew that she was going to have to release him. With a wave of her hand, the scattered pieces of The Vision, that belonged to that, particular head, swirled themselves together and stood upright, making him whole. Immediately, now in control of himself, he switched from his robotic form to his human-looking form and gazed back at her, in terror.

The two had a back and forth conversation (though I can't remember much of the actual dialogue), that had something to do with Wanda trying to justify her imprisonment of him as a means to them finding a way back to their relationship, someday. Vision, naturally, did not follow her logic, and he knew that she had broken bad. The next thing I remember, he was doing everything he could to escape her, while she gave chase after him.

Vision scurried out of the lab and into a barren, nighttime landscape that was bathed in red light, as if the moon shone almost as intensely as the sun, but gave off the deep, crimson color of an eclipse. There was a large, dark body of water, nearby - like a lake or river - which looked much like blood under the light of the moon (though I could not see the moon, itself. Incidentally, had this dream on the night of a blood red moon, while at sea, on a cruise). Vision scrambled to get away, and kept looking behind him, to see if she was still chasing him. Suddenly, the entire landscape went black, like someone had flipped off the red moonlight with a switch. Seconds later, two glowing red orbs blazed in the blacked-out environment. The redness of the moon then came back into view, illuminating the landscape and revealing the two orbs to be Wanda's eyes as she'd manifested herself right next to Vision, when the world went dark.

She stood just between him and the lake or river, with her back to the water. Vision faced her, defiantly, and she gave him a sort of pitiful look, implying that she knew he would not be able to simply escape her. Vision basically called her out as "evil," and he said something about her being "only one" witch - possibly implying that he (like Ultron) had the ability to split his consciousness into other systems (a point that wasn't specifically made in the dream, I don't think, but it certainly would have fit the character). The Scarlet Witch scoffed and said something like "oh? Only one?" She, then, raised her hands, gesturing as if performing a silent spell.

There was movement in the dark red water, behind her. A figure slowly emerged, walking upright, out of the lake/river, and stepping fully into view. It was another Wanda. Then, on her opposite side, the same disturbance in the water appeared, and yet another Wanda walked onto the shore. Then, another. And another. More and more copies of the Scarlet Witch came creeping, eerily, out of the dark water, some of them crawling onto the rocky shore, on all fours, like zombies rising from the dead. As if that weren't enough, a larger figure stood straight up, in the shallow water - a giant-sized Wanda - lumbering forward, standing at about 15 feet high. Yet another giant doppelganger came forward, shortly afterward.

Vision found himself staring at an entire army of various versions of Wanda, as they lined up in formation, around the original. Noticeably taken aback by this, Vision tried to steel himself and pushed back, saying that these were just illusions, and even though she could make it look like they were all tangible, he knew that there was only one of her. Hardly fazed by this, Wanda's face twisted in a gesture of pure concentration, and suddenly one of the copies began speaking for her, stating that she was able to share her consciousness, as well. Another Wanda, on her other side, began talking also, finishing the comment, but the voice's inflection seeming as if it was coming from a completely different entity - almost like Ultron speaking through his many, individual, drones. Many of the other Wandas began chiming in, with comments of their own, making it horrifyingly clear that - though they were extensions of her original mind - they were all individual and autonomous versions of her. (It was creepy as hell.)

I believe that Vision gave up the bravado and continued trying to escape, but I woke up shortly after this moment....(or...rather...I thought I did).

***

Pt.2

(Lucid)

(False Awakening)

I "woke up," in the cruise ship cabin's bed. My fiance was sitting up, beside me, awake, and there was a dark-haired woman sitting on the small couch, next to us. At first, I didn't even notice anything strange about the woman being there, as I just began to tell them both about the Scarlet Witch dream I'd been having, and about how crazy and detailed the narrative was. Annoyingly, as I was recalling the experience, the unfamiliar woman kept interrupting me, telling me that nothing I was saying was somehow "shocking" or "unique," and that it was all just rehashing things that were covered in the new "Doctor Strange" movie, of which Wanda was a central character (even though nothing that happened in the dream was actually in that movie). 

Frustrated, I started talking down to her about how rude she was being. Then, almost spontaneously, I realized that this was a dream. I caught myself, practically mid-sentence, and scoffed at how I was even wasting my time by trying to argue with her. I blurted out: "you're not even real," dismissing her, as matter-of-factly as I could. She just smirked and stared back at me, challengingly, as if I was talking nonsense. Attempting to prove the point, I held out a hand and focused my mind on her - like I was Darth Vader, trying to lift her from the couch in a Force Choke, with telekinesis. The dream was still very vivid, and nothing seemed to be working, at first. Then, I tried again, concentrating a little less and just trying to "will" it to happened. Instead of lifting her whole body from the couch, though, I saw that her head actually started to come off at the neck!

Having confirmed my suspicion enough, I released my control over the character, and her head lowered back onto its base, the skin of her neck stringing itself back together, seamlessly. Just picking at her, at this point, I began imagining myself pinching at little spots on her face, from afar. I could see the skin being prodded by the fingertips of my mind, until pieces of it started tearing away. It seemed like she was resisting, though, because her skin kept snapping back into place. Eventually, I gave one, solid, telekinetic yank on her face, and her entire face ripped itself free of her skull. However, instead of seeing the gory presence of an exposed skull, beneath, she had another, perfectly intact, face just beneath the original one.

 The woman gave a scowl and I saw the pupils of her eyes transform into reptilian slits. She, then, gave an evil smile, trying to intimidate me. Completely confident, by now, that I was in a lucid dream, I just shrugged at her and snickered at her attempt to continue trying to scare me, when the jig was already up. This obviously embarrassed her, because she simply grunted with disgust, stood up from the couch, and walked out of the room.

Finally, not wanting to lose my recollection of all that had happened, I woke myself up, intentionally.

(It was one hell of a ride. I absolutely loved the horror vibe that they gave Wanda in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," and I can see that it left an impression. Haha.)

"Shark Tank Hotel" - 11/08/2021 (Lucid)

"Shark Tank Hotel"

11/08/2021

(Lucid)

 My earliest memory of this dream was of being in a hotel or condominium hallway. After wandering, aimlessly, for some time, I realized that I was in a dream. There was a short, older cleaning lady making her rounds, through the hallways, and I decided to follow her out of curiosity. She was a pretty mundane, character, though, seeming to really have no sort of direction or purpose, as she stopped at one room or another, then just continuing to walk along without really "doing" anything. I noticed a few, small animal cages that lined some of the hallways, which seemed out of place for a hotel, but mostly uninteresting. The woman finally stopped a small storage room with a single toilet inside of it, and it was then that, feeling that this particular thread wasn't really leading anywhere, I decided to ignore her and wander off on my own.

Heading downstairs, I took a moment to look at my hands and focus on the details of my hands, to ground myself into the dream state. My fingers were a bit warped, as if being viewed below a watery surface, but otherwise unaltered, and the environment around me was brought into greater clarity when I looked away from them. Heading outside, to the parking lot, I saw that a number of people had gathered around, and that there was some sort of altercation going down. I don't really recall the details of the situation I'd stumbled upon, but I soon found myself being accosted by a group of 3 or 4 "bullies," who seemed as if they were just looking to start trouble with any and everyone around them. 

Since I was already lucid, I had no problem taking these guys on. Though I don't remember much of the actual fight, I do remember stopping, for a moment, to run my hands along one of the wooden tables nearby, in order to keep me grounded and prevent the dream from fading during the action. Sometime during this skirmish, the crowd he become aware that some kind of giant housecat had roamed onto the property. The animal - which was about the size of a lion, but undoubtedly an exaggeration of a normal housecat - began stalking in my direction, the moment it saw me, and I wasn't exactly getting a welcome feeling from it. 

Immediately, I shifted my attention from my previous, human attackers, and took a defensive stance against the approaching beast. Feeling a good bit of dream control, after taking on multiple opponents, I attempted a superpowered move against the cat, trying to conjure up a "Hadouken!" and throwing my palms out toward it to produce a fireball. Nothing happened, though, and the cat was still coming. I tried once again, yelling the command out, even louder, to try to really get the feeling of willing it into existence. Still nothing, though, and the cat was just about to encroach upon me, so, I did the very first thing that came to mind, instinctively, as it came within reach: I gave it a sharp slap across the face. Unsurprisingly, this didn't seem to faze the big cat, at all, and it simply chomped its jaws down on my hand, and held on tight. The bite didn't really hurt, at all, and it was more annoying than anything else.

Instead of taking the time to continue trying to fight off the animal, I simply turned around and attempted to ignore it, walking away from the crowded lot and back into the hotel. I could feel that the cat's teeth were still closed around my hand, but I noticed that there was very little resistance while I walked. When I looked back, I could see that the cat - which was still locked onto my hand - had shrunk, slightly. It was still big, for a housecat, but not quite as imposing as it had been, before. I passed a reptile tank, which had an alligator inside, and I placed the cat inside. In no time, the two creatures were battling it out, on their own, within the tank. Noticing that there were more tanks in the hallway, I saw one that contained a shark and - for no other real reason than curiosity - I reached into the gator tank, grabbing the two, quarreling animals, and dumping them into the shark tank. On cue, the shark joined into the fray, and all three animals started fighting in the tank that was far too small to fit them comfortably.

Another glass tank caught my eye, nearby, which held some less-threatening, tropical fish. Also inside was an intriguing miniature of internally-lit castle. The windows glowed brightly, in the dim water surrounding it. Since I had become a little tired of this - fairly mundane - hotel environment, I decided to try a scene change and see if I might be able shrink myself down to explore this underwater castle. I figured that phasing through the glass of the aquarium might be the easiest way to make the transition, so I pressed my palms and face against the glass and tried to 'push' myself forward. I encountered just a little resistance, at first, but then I felt myself pass through the glass like a thick, gelatinous fluid. Pushing myself further into the tank, I could see the castle coming closer, though the water was growing more dark and foreboding, the further I advanced. It still felt like my entire body wasn't 'inside' the tank, and I could still sense the discrepancy in my size to that of the castle. It didn't feel natural, at all.

Then, I started thinking about the animals fighting in the tank with which I'd just interacted. The thought of the carnivorous creatures, in an underwater setting, started making me really uncomfortable, as if they were starting to converge on me, in this enclosure, even though this tank was even smaller than the others. Now, unsettled by the notion of being stuck in the murky depths with predators, I reversed my forward progression and pulled my head back out of the tank, through the glass. Upon emerging from the surface, I could see the large head of a great white shark, filling up most of the inside of the tank, just near what my head had been, as if it was swimming toward me to bite my head off of my neck. Since the tank was so small, it was only big enough for the head of the shark. The length of its body, though, was sticking out of the other side of the tank. The head, it seemed, had phased through the glass wall of the tank, just as mine had done, and the body of the shark was just suspended in the air, horizontally, while its head remained stuck inside - as if a pencil had been stabbed a portion of the way into a plastic container.

I was in awe at this surreal image, and the last thing I remember was reaching out and touching the shark's body - which was leathery, damp and detailed - and remarking, out loud, at how cool it was. Unfortunately, touching the shark (although I was not focusing on grounding to the dream, while doing so) was the last thing I actually remember before waking.

"Journey Into Sound" - 02/15/2022 (Lucid)

"Journey Into Sound"

02/15/2022

(Lucid)

(I had a pretty incredible, long, exploratory lucid dream, this morning, after waking up early to take out the trash. There was another hour and a half left before my phone alarm was set to go off, so I decided to go back to sleep and try for a WBTB lucid. My fiancé was getting set for work and I didn't want the sound keeping me awake, so I decided to put on some meditative binaural music and put my earphones in and sleep mask on - two things I hadn't done together, for years. After a few minutes, I'd drifted back off to sleep...)

The first thing I remember of the dream was being in the bathroom, with my fiancé trying to talk to me through the curtain, as she was taking a shower. (This was obviously inspired by the night before, when she was actually talking to me through the shower curtain, before bed.) In the dream, I had my headphones on, listening to what I would later come to find out was the same audio that I was listening to as I slept. The music was drowning out her voice, so I kept trying to take off my headphones, however, even when I would pull the earpieces out of my ears, I would still hear the audio coming from them. Then, I would reach up and try to pull them out of my ears again, and I would pull duplicate earbuds out, so that I was holding multiple copies of them upon every attempt. Finally, I saw that even the earphone jack was disconnected from my phone, but I was still hearing the audio in my ears.

Knowing that something was off, here, I attempted to move something on the bathroom counter with telekinesis: my go-to reality check, when I suspect I might be dreaming. The dream, though, was already very vivid, and I wasn't able to get the object (which I think was a sponge) to move. Still unsure whether this was a dream, I tried to pull back the shower curtain so that I could better understand what she was saying to me, but the curtain simply remained closed, despite my efforts, and it would not budge. Again, I knew that this wasn't right.

I looked around the bathroom, for some sort of confirmation as to whether this was a dream (still aware of the music playing in my ears). When I glanced at the mirror, I noticed that, instead of staring back at myself, my reflection was still standing where I had been, when I was trying to open the shower curtain, and facing away from me. Immediately, I knew this was a dream! Now, without a doubt, I reached one hand up and touched the mirror, in the space where my reflection should have been, and I pushed forward. My hand sank into the mirrored glass like water, and I stopped when it was about elbow deep, pulling it back out. I thought I might try crawling into the mirror, but when I tried and felt resistance - because of the dream being so vivid - I thought better of the idea, due to the risk of getting stuck and pulling myself out of the dream, completely.

Leaving the bathroom - still hearing the music in my head and recalling that it was the music I'd begun playing in my headset, when I went back to sleep - I made my way to the front door. For a moment, I thought about phasing through the door, but, again, like with the mirror, I anticipated getting stuck and jeopardizing the entire dream. Instead, I wanted to use an exit where I could already see outside, so I walked over to the nearest window. Reaching out and touching the windowsill, I ran my fingers along it, taking in the sensation of the wood frame, and grounding myself into the dream, trying to keep myself from thinking about my waking world body, so as not to get pulled back into wakefulness. Just outside of the window, I noticed something sticking out of the trash bin. It took me a few moments to realize that it was a human head. There was a dead, bald guy stuffed partially into the garbage, but, since he was close enough to touch, I merely reached out and shoved him off to one side, not wanting to fill my head with any thoughts of the dead (or the undead, since I'd been playing 'Dying Light 2', the past few nights). 

I crawled out of the open window and into the back yard, walking, then, around to the front of the house. It was a pleasant, sunny, but slightly cloudy morning (just a bit less overcast as it had been, when I'd been awake and taking the trash out, before going back to bed), and the rising sun and clouds had a very saturated, painterly look to them (much like the picturesque sunrises in the Dying Light games). Suddenly, a red Nissan RX-7 (similar to one that a friend used to have) came skidding to a stop, across my lawn and driveway. An unfamiliar man immediately jumped out of the driver's side, with a shotgun, and took aim at me, from about four yards away. Still completely aware that I was dreaming, though, I was able to raise both my forearms across my torso and brace against the blast, once he pulled the trigger. I could feel a bit of a punch, but it was an otherwise painless impact.

Unfortunately, I don't quite recall how I moved on, from my attacker, but I feel like I just kinda 'force-pushed' him out of the way and walked off, to explore the dreamscape. I remember walking directly across the street from my house, and toward the neighbor's home, just to see what I might find, inside. The front room (I assume, since I've never actually seen the inside of this neighbor's house) was quaint and dimly lit, and the one thing that really stood out to me was that there were cats walking/climbing all around the place. (We have had plenty of experiences with the strays around our neighborhood.)  One of the cats came up to me, bit me on the hand - which didn't really hurt - and decided that it wanted to latch on and not lot go. (There is a hilarious story about something similar happening in a previous lucid dream of mine.) Instead of giving it any of my attention - and possibly making the "attack" worse - I just decided to ignore the cat, which eventually disappeared, and I continued exploring the small house. The back rooms were semi-dark, as well, and fairly unspecific. Things were getting rather mundane, actually, and I started trying to think of something interesting to do.

First thing that came to mind was trying to find the Dream World Academy, and I was wondering how I might get to it, from here. I moved a couple of things around, in one of the rooms, trying to "will" a portal to appear behind random objects, but to no avail. I noticed a piano, in a corner, and thought I might try the old "secret passage" concept from movies. I played a couple of notes on the piano, trying to command a door to open, somewhere. Though I don't remember whether the trick actually worked or not, the next thing I remember is walking out of a stone hallway, and back onto the street in my neighborhood. 

A little frustrated with going in circles, so to speak, my attention was then drawn upward. The cloud-cover was pretty amazing, with a canopy of white rows of clouds now blanketing most of the sky. It looked vast, and awesome, and inviting. For a moment, I thought about flying up, to see if I could find a "heaven," curious as to my mind's rendition of it, but I, again, became weary of the danger of losing the dream, altogether (as it is, sometimes, tough for me to fly "above" certain altitudes, in dreams). Even at the very thought of it, I rubbed my hands together and concentrated on grounding myself even further into the dream, improving the clarity of the scene around me, in the process.

Rather than taking to the sky, I decided to focus, again, on finding the Academy. This time, instead of attempting to create portals, I thought I might try spinning the scene. Setting my intention to manifest the Academy, upon looking behind me, I quickly did a half-spin, in place. Instead of a normal, neighborhood home, I found a small, non-descript office complex. Curious, I walked to one of the window-lined buildings and stepped into an office. Most of the people that I saw, inside, were old, while folks, who all seemed very warm to my arrival. I told one lady that I was looking for the Dream World Academy, and she told me that I'd come to the right place. She said that class was just started, and that I could follow her to it. We stepped through slender, white hallways and, along the way, I passed by a girl in a hoodie, who was leaning up against a wall and reminded me of an old friend, B. It seemed as if she had been waiting for this class to start, with the way she'd removed herself from the wall and began to follow us, once we passed.

Shortly afterward, in a small, rather bland classroom, the old woman began speaking. To be honest, I can only remember that she wasn't necessarily saying anything of interest, and the girl in the hoodie was looking just as detached from the dialogue as I was. Satisfied that I had found the Academy (albeit an unconventional "version" of it), I decided to go explore some more, removing myself from the classroom and wandering the halls again. Stepping out of one glass door, and into an outdoor corridor, I noticed a large hole in the concrete sidewalk. Looking into it, I saw that there was a stone staircase, heading down into the earth, and I made my way down into it. After a short while in this compact stairwell, I found myself coming out of another hallway, right back onto the street of my neighborhood. Again, I was at ground level, after having walked down a staircase, though I had never been higher than ground level, to begin with.

I noticed that I had a piece of paper in my hand, about the size of a business card. Unconcerned with whether anything was written on it, I decided to take the moment to use it to ground myself to the dream once more, taking the paper between my fingers and running them over the surface, feeling the tiniest details of the roughness of the material. As usual, that attention to detail caused the rest of the dream to feel more solid and immersive, when I took another glance at the neighborhood around me.

Once more, the sky above the houses caught my eyes. This time, it was because I could see three or four aircraft in the distance, doing what looked like air show stunts, over the city. Their aerobatics didn't seem to conform to physics, though, as they were just aimlessly tumbling and twisting through the air, completely devoid of any sense of logic. Interested, I began to hover, just a few feet from the ground, and toward the squad of aircraft. Just when I got within about 100 yards from them, the aircraft seem to all notice me, at once, and streaked in my direction. As they came closer, they all spiraled around each other and converged in a sort of cartwheeling transformation in the air (much like Starscream, from the 'Transformers' movies), twisting themselves into a single, Super Fighter Jet, about twice the size that a real one would be.

Now, hovering, just in front of me, like a VTOL-styled jet, the aircraft seemed to be blatantly taking aim at me. Anticipating incoming fire, and still feeling quite a bit of control, I simply stuck out one hand, palm facing the jet just as a stream of heavy machinegun fire sprayed in my direction. Effortlessly, my hand deflected the onslaught without the slightest tinge of pain. Then, I brought both my hands up, swiping my palms toward each other in a 'squeezing' motion, and crushing the entire plane, from a distance, with telekinesis, before flicking the mangled heap, dismissively, down an adjacent street.

Continuing on, in my current direction, I came to the roadway's dead end. The road didn't just stop, though. It disappeared into the rolling waves of the ocean, as if the entire street had been a beach ramp, all along, and half my neighborhood (which is nowhere near the beach) had fallen away into coastal waters. I was, now, on the ocean shore, looking down one side, to see that the water had come all the way up to the buildings - which had become more the mansions and/or hotel-type buildings, that you would normally catch on a touristy beach, rather than the small, suburban homes that were surrounding me, before. The entire rear face of one building had been sheared away by the water, exposing the hollowed, derelict, concrete skeleton within the structure. Still interested in exploring, I made my way over to the building, stopping for a moment to run my hand along a wooden fence, in order to ground myself to the dream, once more. I started to reflect on just how long this dream had been lasting, and remembered to think of key points to recall, upon waking, so I wouldn't lose too many of the earlier events to memory. (The four key points that I specifically recall instilling into my mind were the headphones dream sign; finding the 'Academy;' taking on the fighter jet; and this beach scene.) It was around here, that I noticed that I could still hear the meditative music that was playing through my headphones.

Once inside the hollowed-out building, there really wasn't much to look at. It was not much more than your standard - albeit enormous - abandoned home, with one whole side completely broken away and exposed to the ocean. While on the ground floor, just a few feet away from the lapping waves that intruded well into the structure, I saw a small, wooden platform - which looked motorized - "drive" in, from the open water, do a 90-degree turn, and sort of "park itself," just near me, practically screaming an invitation to get on it. So, I did. The plank steered itself away from the mansion and began to take me up the coastline, like a powered surfboard. In the distance, I could see two nearly-identical islands, with cone-like structures jetting up from the center of each one, as if they held twin volcanoes at their centers.

I was immediately intrigued by the thought of exploring these islands but, as the plank carried me, it began moving in a more lateral motion, as if it were trying to pull me further out to sea than to the islands that hugged the coast. As this was happening, the waves began to get more and more intense, and I could feel myself losing comfort. It wasn't long before these torrential tidal waves were crashing over even the tops of the buildings on the coast, and I was getting swept in and out with the current. This was getting out of hand. I jumped off of the plank and attempted to fly the rest of the way to the islands, but even the wind, it seemed, was creating this same rhythmic swelling and receding as the waves. It, too, was threatening to pull me out toward the horizon, even as I hovered a few dozen feet over the angry sea.

My anxiety was rising, and I was feeling less and less control of the situation. I even began sinking, out of the air, finding it hard to keep my levitation going. Knowing that I didn't want to find myself submerged in this writhing ocean, I waited until the moment my feet touched down on the surface of the water and gave myself one, desperate 'push', back into the air, executing a super-jump that, luckily, carried me over the rest of the water and allowed me to land upon the nearest island. The last thing I remember seeing was the broken barricade of an entrance to an underground mine, as well as the mouth of a separate, nearby cave, which continued straight into the volcanic mountainside, in front of me. As I stared at the two, rather ominous holes to the earth, thinking about which, if either, to explore, I heard the alarm on my phone ringing out - the sound seeping into the dream and replacing the soothing, ambient music that had been playing, throughout. 

I awoke, immediately.

========

(Side-Note:

As a bonus: the very next day, after having had such success with having my headphones on, I decided to try the same setup, waking up early and then putting on my headphones, to the same, meditative music, then attempting another Wake-Back-to-Method. The dream was much less eventful, so I won't write the whole thing out but, just as before, I had my headphones on, while in the dream. When I tried to take them out of my ears, just as before, they were simply multiplying as one earbud would be in my fingers, and its copy would still remain in my ear, and the music would continue playing. I instantly became lucid, in that dream, as well, making it two days in a row. 

I did try, once again, this morning, to make it a third time, but I wasn't able to remember anything but a small dream fragment, upon waking. No lucidity, on the last attempt, but this will definitely be something I attempt again, in the future.)

"Tap Worms" - 09/17/2021

"Tap Worms"

09/17/2021

Some friends and I were hanging out in my old home. We had been casually drinking glasses of tap water from the sink, and really thinking nothing of it, for most of the day. (For context: the water quality where I live, now, isn't great.) At some point, though, we'd begun to notice that there was quite a lot of "trash" floating about in our glasses. Upon closer inspection, we found that there were the tiny, brown worms hanging about, in the water. We immediately dumped whatever we had left in our glasses, disgusted.

Shortly after our discovery, the odd behavior started. First, it was just within my group of friends, with people becoming erratic and frenzied. After dispersing everyone from the home, though, I'd come to find that this had begun affecting other folks in my neighborhood, and beyond. These worms, it was revealed, were part of a hive-mind of parasitic creatures, which bored their way through people's bodies and into their brains, causing them to become infected with treacherous, murderous tendencies. As more of these cases amassed, the worms began growing - and growing - to the point where they were breaking out of the bodies of their hosts and just continuing to expand like pasta noodles from a pressurized grate. Before long, it wasn't safe to be anywhere in town, and those of us who seemed unaffected had resolved to finding a hideaway, far away from town.

We came upon a small church, out in the sticks, and set up a spot to rest and plan our next move. This was a short-lived refuge, though, as more of the worms, already enlarged, began streaming up out of the floor around us. Then, the floor, itself, began cracking open, and what was proven to be an enormous, Lovecraftian mass of tentacles - the apparent base of this superorganism of worms - came breaking its way up from beneath the building. (It reminded me of the monster from Deep Rising.) I had no choice but to jump out of a window, as the creature overwhelmed the church and, soon, began expanding outward until it overtook the entire region, mutilating and consuming everyone caught in its ever-inflating path. Eventually, I, too, was swept up by the creature, and I remember being fed to the toothy, cavernous base within the mass of tendrils. Everything went black.

Suddenly, there was a transition in the dream, and I was back at my old home. Things had, seemingly, returned to normal, though I still had memory of what had happened, before. Immediately after recalling past events, the tentacled monster broke in through the halls of the home, forcing me out of the front door. I ran through the neighborhood, looking back to see the mass of tendrils completely overtaking my house, billowing up through the roof like gigantic strands of hair, undulating in an underwater current.

Panicked, I ran around the corner, passing my older neighbor, F's, home. She saw me passing and came out as if to help me. I gave her the abridged rundown of what was happening, and her face quickly turned stern and serious. She something like: "Run, all you want. You'll never escape. Surrender, now. You'll be dead within 20 minutes, anyway." Her sinister tone was unmistakable, and I could tell that she was possessed. The worms had already begun burrowing through her brain and twisting her thoughts to that of the hivemind. Immediately, I was struck by a sense of hopelessness and defeat. I felt trapped in this, practically circular, series of events. Somewhat apathetically, I submitted to the demand, and said that I was going to go along without a struggle, and my neighbor told me that she was going to take me to meet the source of this monstrous presence, face-to-face. I knew, instinctively, that this was a case of demonic influence, and not something specifically alien. For whatever reason, I agreed to go with her, and got into her car.

Already sitting in her backseat, was another woman - around my age. Apparently, she was another person who had "surrendered," and she was also being taken to the source. We arrived at a towering, high-rise building in the city, and followed F into the elevator. A creeping dread came over me, as we ascended, and I could tell that the other captive was doing the same. We both knew that, no matter what happened during his meeting, we would soon be meeting our demise. Panic, once again, began to take hold.

Shortly after the elevator doors open, the other woman made a break for it, sprinting, full-tilt, toward the large window at the end of the hall, crashing through the glass and plummeting to her death, obviously preferring to face death upon her own terms. Shocked, F turned and looked at me, as if to gauge my reaction. Immediately, I blurted out to her that "That's what I'm going to do, too!" As promised, a dashed down the hallway, sailing through the open window and careening toward the street, far below.

The last thing I remember was a feeling of all-encompassing calm and acceptance, knowing that I was going to die upon smacking into the pavement, but relieved that I would not become a mindless drone of this ravenous demon that we'd just abandoned. Everything went black, during the fall, and I don't remember ever hitting the ground.

"Jason Voorhees...Again....and again, and again, and..." - 09/26/2007

"Jason Voorhees...Again....and again, and again, and..."

09/26/2007

I was a girl, in this dream, and the first thing I remember is that I was walking through a dark house. It was the typical horror movie ambiance, where I was moving slowly, feeling that something just 'wasn't right,' and being mysteriously drawn to a particular room. When I got to the bedroom, I could hear the sound of the shower running from the bathroom, but there was just barely any light coming from it. I stepped slowly into the bathroom and saw that it had one of those showers with the sliding glass doors. It was completely filled up with steam, and I couldn't see whomever was inside it. The bathroom was already eerily lit with a soft blue bulb, which didn't help the anxiety that I was feeling creeping up my spine. Cautiously, I walked toward the shower and, just as I was a couple of feet away, I saw Freddy Krueger's gloved hand slam up against the shower door, from within the cloud of steam inside, and scrape it's nails down the glass. (I thought me and that asshole were supposed to be cool, now. However, Universal Studios has been advertising that Jason, Freddy and Leatherface are going to all be characters present at Halloween Horror Nights, this year, which is probably want prompted his appearance.)

Anyway, I ran out of the house and, on the way out, I ran directly into Jason Voorhees. He stood there, glaring down at me, and I immediately took off in another direction. I was in a huge field, at night, way out in the country, somewhere, and there was a barn or something in the distance. I hauled ass toward it and, just as I ran up to the front, ol' Jason was standing directly in my way (having just 'appeared' there like he often does in the movies). I switched directions and ran parallel to the barn/house/thing. When I came around the corner, there he was again. He swung his machete at me, and I ran off another way. While running along a lake, I'd found myself beginning to step into the water. Before I knew it, I was waist-deep in it. Suddenly, a light came on, beneath the surface, and the entire lake lit up like a swimming pool. Directly in front of me, Jason slowly came rising to the surface, standing up in the water and walking slowly in my direction. I scurried out of the lake and toward a group of trees to, hopefully, provide me some cover. Again, though, he walked out from behind a tree, in front of me. He swiped his machete and actually sliced me (didn't hurt that much). This threw me off guard and he was able to wrestle me to the ground, while I was kicking and screaming.

Pinning me to the ground, on my stomach, Jason put down his machete and pulled a hacksaw from out of nowhere. He pressed himself down on my back and I could feel him setting the blade of the saw down on the back of my neck. I was absolutely flipping the f*ck out! (Who wouldn't be??) I bent one of my legs up and was, somehow, able to kick him off of me, right before he was able to start cutting my head off. As he began to right himself, I rolled over, picked up his machete and, in one swipe, cut his head clean off his shoulders. His head hit the ground, while his body fell to its knees, and I immediately turned and ran. After running for a while, I couldn't believe it when I saw, again, Jason out in front of me. He was still headless - his body still on its knees and still seemingly dead. It was like I had run in a straight line, but still completed a full circle to pass the same place I'd just left. I kept running straight, watching the body as I passed. Suddenly, just as I'd gotten close enough, the headless body lunged out at me, grabbing my legs and tripping me. We wrestled to the ground again and he had his machete back, trying to kill me. It was somewhere around here that I woke up.

"Blown out of the Sky" - 11/25/2011 (Lucid)

"Blown out of the Sky"

11/25/2011  

Dream #2

(Lucid)

The first thing I remember was that I was lying down, naked, in a small, enclosed pod. Another body - petite; also naked - was sleeping on top of my chest. I could instantly tell it was a female, and that she was lying face down with her cheek practically nuzzled into my neck. I don't remember the dialogue that followed, but I heard a male voice, outside of the enclosure, stating that the girl was "T"  (an attractive friend and coworker, IRL) and that she had some kind of medical condition where, if she laid on her back for too long, she would stop breathing and die. She had, apparently, just rolled over, on her stomach, on top of me, and so the voice told me that I had to keep her there, asleep, so that she would neither wake up nor roll back over onto her back, since  she would be in danger of suffocating. I had no idea what we were even doing, lying in this chamber together, but the feeling of having here there with me was amazing. I was just loving it. She shuffled softly against me, and I put a hand down onto her lower back, feeling her torso rise and fall with another breath, confirming that she was breathing well and ok to be in this position. (With the lighting and everything, it felt like the final scene in "The Fifth Element," where Korben and Leeloo are in the rejuvenation chamber.)

The dream skipped ahead, and T and I were, then, sitting on an airplane together. We had gotten word (over the intercom, I believe), that we were under attack from rocket fire. No sooner did we get this warning, than a rocket slammed into the far section of the plane, causing an intense explosion. The far side of the plane (which I'm guessing was the front, because we were facing that way) tore right off of the rest of the aircraft, leaving a gaping hole, through which people and chairs began streaming out of the plane, into the night sky. We could only brace against each other and watch scores of people rip away from us - flinging out to God knows where - while we, still buckled into our seats, spiraled sickeningly toward a ground that we could not see. (My notes say something about making a deal with someone, which I don't really remember the details of, but I believe it had something to do with the attack on the plane.)

Soon, we were pulling ourselves out of the wreckage, having landed on some remote island, somewhere. I don't remember the actual impact, though. (It all seemed very "Lost"-like.) The plane was in ruins, but there were still a few survivors. Someone, who I believe might have been the pilot (even though he should have been torn away from us, with the rest of the plane), came onto the intercom and apologized for the rough landing, but he followed that by saying that 'at least it was better than the last time'...whatever that meant.

We were, soon, out in the wilderness, and we ran across a group of bandits who held us up (presumably, the ones who shot us down). They seemed pretty primitive, but they had weapons, and we didn't, so they began to take hostages. Once one of them got me in a chokehold, I began to panic a bit. However, I also began to suspect that I was dreaming. I held up one fist, in front of me, and tried to make a large blade grow out of my knuckles. It didn't work, though, and I just could not get the weapon to materialize. Instead, I pointed to another one of the bandits and made a 'flicking' gesture with my hand, as if I was brushing dust off of an old countertop. The man I was looking at promptly exploded and disappeared into thin air. The rest of the bandits stared at me, in shock, and began to fall back. The one who'd once had a hold of me quickly let me go. Now, content with the upper-hand, I let out a huge 'Shout' (taking a cue from "Skyrim") and unleashed a nice shockwave of sound, which blew some of the bandits backward. I could see the shockwave roll across the high grass and a nearby river bed, blasting into a patch of trees in the distance, where a grizzly bear had been standing. The husky bear reeled from the sound wave and turned tail to run away.

Quite satisfied with this, I went to turn my attention back to the bandits and saw that there was something coming, from off to one side. It was very large and moving over the river, but there was really nothing that we could identify - because of the torrential splashes of water shrouding the large, dark figure. At first, I thought it was a giant alligator - with a body some 15ft in diameter. But, when it got close enough to cease run/stomping through the water, its true form was revealed. It was a dragon - a pretty badass dragon, actually; all jagged, bony features and dark, nearly-black scales. It stopped in front of us, staring directly into my face, and had a short conversation with me, referring to me as the 'Dragonborn' (which is the nickname given to the lead character in Skyrim, which I have been playing lately, of course). I remember that it had the deep voice of the huge first dragon that I encountered in Skyrim, but I don't remember the conversation that we had.

Shortly after this, I was walking through a field, along with T. I took a moment to look at my hands, trying to ground myself into the dream a bit. My left hand looked fine, but I noticed that my right hand was missing two fingers and the thumb, bony stumps left where the fingers should be.

Again, my memory skips ahead a little while. We were in a more urban area, and a group of thugs pulled up in a caravan of jeeps and SUVs. There were a few more people in my group, now, than when it was just T and I. They, again, held us all at gunpoint, and the leader had this weird-looking gun that looked like it had 100 taser barbs, ready to fire. From the hardcore look of the weapon, though, it seemed like the barbs would do a lot more than just send a couple of thousand volts through someone. Still lucid, though, I kept getting in the leader's face, daring him to shoot me, trying to keep his attention off of the other people in my group.

There was another transition, and T and I were back in the wilderness - more of a jungle area, actually - trudging through a small pond of murky water. We were about stomach-deep, and it was only about 12 feet wide, so there already wasn't much room for us. It seemed much smaller, though. Much more crowded. That's when I noticed there was something very large, floating in the pond, just inches in front of me. It was actually taking up most of the space in the pond. I looked at it for a moment, and couldn't figure out what. It looked very rough, like it was a patch of hard Earth that was sticking up just a few inches out of the water. Then, I noticed it had a face, and on the near side of that face, I saw one, slit-pupiled eye staring back at me. An alligator. A very, very large alligator. T seemed to recognize it as a gator, at the same time as I did. I could see a quiet panic building up on her face, and I was feeling quite intimidated, myself. We shuffled quietly, trying to walk our way around it. I could see, though, that with every movement I made to get passed the gator, the gator's head would turn just slightly, in order to keep its eye on me. It was watching me, and I had a feeling it was about to strike at me, at any moment. I knew that this was a dream, but I wasn't really sure of what to do in the situation. I knew had to do something, though.

On instinct, I suddenly lunged at the enormous gator, landing on it's back and trying to wrap my arms around its mouth, from a mounted position. I landed a little too low on its body, though, and was only able to grab around its neck. The gator reared its head back, toward me, snapping its jaws just beside my head and grabbing ahold of my right ear with its teeth. I felt it bite down, but it didn't hurt all that match. I was, however, seemingly stuck. This thing would not let go of me, and I was not about to let go of it, giving it more room to maneuver. This thing could have easily bitten the top portion of my body in half, it was so big.

The last thing I remember is splashing around in the pond, fighting this massive reptile that had a vice-grip on my ear, while T tried to escape the water.

"Invincible" - 01/25/2007 (Lucid)

”Invincible”

01/25/2007 

Dream #1

(Lucid)

[IMG Credit]

(HAHAHAHA. Oh my God. I just had another good one. With the holidays over, I’ve recently started hitting the gym pretty hard, again. I’ve noticed that when I’ve been good to my body and mind, I get more lucids. Seems like common sense, I know, but I feel it’s worth noting. Anyway… )

So, this dream started in someone’s garage. I was a disembodied spectator, at first, and I saw that my mom had stolen some money from the Wrong People. She had dug a hole in the ground, in the garage (which was weird, because the ground is concrete and she was only using a shovel) and was burying the money in it. She heard some people coming, and the garage door began opening so, impossibly quick, she buried herself in the hole, along with the money and a shotgun, in case she needed to surprise her pursuers. When the garage opened, a bunch of cars and a school bus came up into the driveway. This is when the dream switched to first person, and my recall skips ahead a little bit. 

There was now a birthday party going on, in the garage, where a bunch of kids; their parents; and I were playing party games (which explained the school bus). Somehow, I knew something about the money and that the amount that mom had buried herself with was only a portion of it. Another car slowly pulled up into the driveway and a squad of mob-looking guys stepped out with their guns drawn. They walked up into the garage and started swinging their guns around at everyone, asking about their money. Of course no one else knew what they were talking about.

I, pretty sure there was about to be a bloodbath, finally spoke up. I took one of the men in the house and grabbed a bag full of cash, and gave it to him. As we were walking back to the garage I said something like, “Ok you’ve got your money. You’re going to let us go, right? These are just kids.” The guy was like “I can’t do that. You’re all witnesses.”

They stood somewhat in the center of our crowd, as we made a sort of ring around them, everyone too afraid to run away. Even the children were cringing and sobbing. Many of us, every time a gun barrel would aim in our direction, would discretely try to position ourselves behind the person standing next to us (which reminds me of a scene in a dream I had a while back, I just can’t remember which one). I forgot how, but one of the girls was able to talk the lead guy into letting her take the smallest child inside. Then, somehow, things turned around, and the gang decided not to kill us. They were going to take us with them and hold us hostage, instead. I dunno if I can’t remember why they decided this, or if there was just never a reason given.

Next thing I knew, though, we were driving down the highway in the school bus. I was sitting in the very back seat and the mob car was behind us. I was nervous as hell, sitting by the window, because I remembered (though I don’t really remember him saying it) that the lead guy had told us that, should we try anything funny, they’d open fire into the back of the bus, and I knew I was the first person that would be hit.

After driving for a while, the dream shifted again (I hate that I don’t know whether my dreams actually skip, or there are just gaps in my recall) and we, in the bus, were sitting outside of this nightclub. Everything was dead silent and I was still in the back, absolutely fuming mad about there being nothing any of us could do to get us out of the situation we were in. It was in having this moment to myself, to think, that I realized that all of this was a dream. I didn’t even do any reality checks to confirm it. (I am glad that I’m becoming more familiar with just knowing when I’m dreaming, by the feeling itself, and not having to confirm it) I don’t even think I looked at my hands to stabilize the dream, because it was already vivid enough, and I only had one thing on my mind: I was pissed at having been completely humiliated by these DCs.

I stood up and just walked off of the bus. I know there was a guy that was outside guarding us, but I don’t remember how exactly I got past him. I was soon barging into the club, like I was the terminator, eyes focused and scanning around for the rest of these men. The décor was completely unfamiliar, as far as I know, but the place was dominated by soft purple and gold lights. I saw the first guy in the hallway and, before he could do anything, I grabbed him by the face and slammed him back against the wall. He went down without much of a fight. Turning the corner, I came to the main room, two men suddenly standing up as soon as they saw me, drawing their guns. I turned my attention to the man on my left and he shot first. I reached up and caught his bullet in mid-air -- I could actually feel it, like an ant bite, when it hit my palm. I dropped the bullet and he shot, again. I caught the second bullet and slung my arm back at him, imagining the bullet hitting him in the chest - which it did, taking him down. I continued walking (which I hadn’t stopped doing since I came in the room) toward the man a few yards in front of me. People around the club were ducking for cover from the gunshots and flattening themselves against the walls, away from us. The man fired once or twice and, again, I caught the bullet(s).

Then, one of the kids from the bus wandered into the club. I stopped and looked back at the kid (whose position was at about 5 o’clock, in relation to where I was now standing), then looked back at the guy with the gun. I taunted him by saying something like “Hey look, it’s one of your hostages. If you gotta go, you might as well take somebody with you, right?” The gunman, not really knowing what to do, whipped his gun over at the kid and pulled the trigger. I dove to the side, covering a good five yards, in an instant, and catching the bullet before it hit the child. The man yelled out something like “You monster!!” and started shooting at me repeatedly, as I continued walking toward him, catching and swatting away every bullet that came in my direction. I stopped right in front of him and put my hands down, and decided to give him a free shot, while affirming to myself that I was, indeed, invincible. He put the barrel about three inches away from my forehead and pulled the trigger. It felt like someone had merely flicked me in the forehead with their finger. Ha! Oh, to see the look on that guy’s face!

I reached out and grabbed him by the collar, spun around and threw him behind me, straight out the front door of the club - which was now, mysteriously, directly behind me, instead of around the corner like it had been, earlier. I walked back outside the club to look for him and, as soon as I stepped out the door, I turned to the side and saw a car heading straight for me. It was the gunman, of course. Fully confident in my level of control, I planted my feet and pushed forward with my hands, completely smashing in the front of his car and bringing it to an immediate stop. Then, for good measure, I ripped open his hood and smashed my palm down through his air filter, flattening the top half of his engine. When I walked around to the side his car, he had already gotten out and was running away from me, terrified, and heading (for some reason) toward a lake that was a good 100 yards away, and he had a damned-good head start. I tried a super-speed run, to catch up with him, by focusing on the area a few feet in front of him and sprinting toward it. I was moving really fast, but not really 'The Flash' fast, just as the man jumped into the lake and started swimming his little heart out. Lol.

So, being a good 50-ft or so away from the water, I jumped into the air and levitated over to him, dropping down into the water right in front of him and grabbing him by the shirt. The water was only waist deep so, at first, I started guiding him out of the lake on his feet but, then, just to show-off a little more (why is showing off to DC’s so much fun, knowing they aren’t real? Haha) I said “And just to show you what you were up against…” then I flew up out of the water and directly toward the tree I had passed under while running after him. I dragged him through the tree - the branches smacking and scratching against his face, while I didn’t even feel them. Finally, being as high as the tree itself, after coming out the other side, I slung the guy down toward his own car so hard that his body smashed up the back end just as much as the front had been.

I landed in the parking lot and all the kids and parents and club-goers that had been outside watching started cheering and giving me props (which, again, is always satisfying, even when you're aware that they aren't real). Some time during the aftermath, I'd lost lucidity; the cops showed up; the bad guys were arrested; and all was right with the world.

(Woke up at about 4:30, almost too excited to even think about going back to sleep. I wrote down the notes for this dream and went back to bed, trying to induce another lucid dream with the WBTB method. I did have a few dream fragments, afterward, but none of them lucid.)

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"Please Do not Beat on Glass" - 6/23/2008 (Lucid)

"Please Do Not Beat On Glass"

06/23/2008

(Lucid)

(I haven't been keeping to habits that foster great dream recall, lately, so even though I'm trying to get back in the routine of dream journaling, I've been kind of lacking in remembering the details. However, I do remember a fragment of a lucid, from last night.)

There was a public sea-life exhibit, enclosed and with large tanks making up the walls of the interior rooms. Everything was dimmed, relying solely on whatever sources were lighting the tanks, and the atmosphere reminded me of the shark exhibit, at Sea World. I spent some time going from tank to tank, and seeing all of the creatures they had in them. Some of the tanks were enormous, leading to large outer-areas of the park, and they housed everything from sharks to octopi to eels.

I don't necessarily remember becoming lucid, but I soon knew that this was a dream, and the first thing I can recall was roaming around this crowded walkway, looking for something to do, during what time I had left in the dream. Being in this cave-like exhibit, the first thing that came into my mind was shattering all the tanks and flooding the whole area. I can't remember if I found or manifested the object, but I was soon walking around with a baseball bat. I began smashing all of the tanks, one by one - some of them only spider-webbing, while the others broke and released whatever water and life they held. When I hit the bigger tanks, they exploded, hundreds of gallons surging in and collecting over the floor. Before too long, the entire exhibit enclosure was submerged in water. I cautiously confirmed that I could breathe underwater (wary, at first, of inhaling and having real water push in through my nostrils), and then continued on busting out whatever tanks were still intact.

For some time, I just played about, underwater. Some of the people around me looked still and dead - floating about, lifeless, in the illuminated water - and others were just walking or swimming around, making their way through the water just as I was.

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"Bridge Jumping" - 5/13/2008 (Lucid)

"Bridge Jumping"

5/13/2008

(Lucid)

[IMG Credit]

Tony, Ryan and I were simply having a ball, jumping off an enormous bridge - a couple of hundred feet high - and into a river or lake, below. After splashing down, we'd then have to climb this long, ridiculously steep boat ramp back up to the top. At one point, I jumped and plunged down a little too far underwater. I was running out of air, and didn't know how much further it was to the surface. In a panic reaction, my body forced me to inhale. I could breathe! I was instantly lucid. Ryan and Tony had jumped down, again, and were now in the murky water with me. Ryan (being the antagonizing fabrication of my subconscious that he was) all of a sudden just bust out with: "What are we going to do if some huge sea creatures or sharks come along??"

Refusing to be phased by my brain trying to freak me out, I calmly replied: "Well, I don't know about you, but I'll just do this," and I rose up out of the water, hovering with my feet just a few inches over the surface of it. While in the air, I saw the dark silhouette of some sort of creature swimming beneath the water, not far from where my friends were. I was just kinda like "Oh, f**k that..." and tried not to imagine myself falling back underwater. I was having a hard time keeping myself floating, suddenly, so I hovered over toward the shoreline. I was lucid, sure, and trying to be brave about it, but I still didn't like the idea of swimming around with some unidentified dream creatures.

I couldn't remember anything else, though.

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