Weird . . .

[Alex Lou]

I've decided to start recording some of the insights I have about dreaming.  I have no doubt that anything I come up with has already been documented and recorded by someone else.  But, I don't read tutorials, so I don't know what's covered.  This will be ongoing:

I often use proprioception as measure of my progress in entering a dream.  If it takes me a while to fall asleep, I will lose awareness in my extremities, especially my hands.  Although I can recall and discern where they are from my general position and arms, I have no feeling of their exact location.  As I move closer to dreaming, I begin to have imagined proprioception.  Sometimes I can feel my legs kick and know that this was not an act of my real legs, but instead a hallucination.  The start of the dream is marked by my awareness of an entire "dream body."  That is, the dream starts when my proprioception is entirely imagined and I can move around without moving my real body.  Or, in rare cases, I will have overlapping awareness of imagined and real proprioception.

It is not necessary to force control.  Simply expecting something to happen will cause it to happen.  Conversely, doubt kills control.

Also gonna collect my reality checks and dream signs that I pick up on here.
Dream signs:
I say or do something inappropriate.
I cheat on my husband.
I feel groggy, "out of it", or asleep.
I have trouble remembering things.
I feel as if I'm not really there.
The last thing I remember was going to sleep.
My husband says or does something strange.
My dead dog is alive.
Something really bad happens.
Something happens that has a strong emotional impact on me.
Unusual beaches.

RCs: 
Look at the visual details around me.
Check for the "dream feeling."  For me this seems to be feeling groggy, asleep, out of it, or as if I'm not really there.


Lucid:  WBTB +

The dream scene that I found myself in was one in which I was supposed to be talking to a therapist (which is weird since I never see therapists), but I was completely ignoring the woman and instead was trying to draw intangible concepts out of the objects around me for the advanced task of the month on DV. I was failing quite completely when the therapist's shirt caught my attention. It was a turquoise, short-sleeved button down with white polka dots. I drew the turquoise color out of it and the color flew through the air in liquid form and went down my throat. I didn't feel or taste anything. Now the woman's shirt was just gray scale. It didn't look like whites or grays in reality, because in reality these have slight color from lighting and reflections. Her shirt was completely devoid of color, as if no color could touch it and the polka dots were no longer visible.

Next I decided to go to Uranus.  I went flying from earth to find Uranus and took my twelve-year-old niece with me. We were flying hand-in-hand and I couldn't decide if she could fly on her own or if I was making her fly too.

We made it out into space pretty easily and there were all the planets in a rough line. They looked like some glow-in-the-dark toy planets that I bought for my husband. I was thinking that this was going very well, especially considering that so many people complain that it's difficult to fly into space and this was really my first time leaving the earth's atmosphere through flight. I was looking for two turquoise-blue planets next to each other; one would be Neptune, and the other Uranus. But I didn't see them, and soon I started to see planets that I didn't recognize and I realized that we had left the solar system. I turned back the way we had come, and as we went I continued looking for the twin planets. Wherever I saw one plain, big, blue planet I'd look for another next to it, and sometimes I'd see one but once we got closer the planet would morph and look completely different. Finally I did find what looked like the right set and I was able to pick out which one was Neptune, so we headed for the other one. I was having trouble getting close to the planet through flight so I teleported us to the surface.

We ended up in a building of sorts. It was L-shaped with a very high ceiling. Windows made up all the walls on the inside of the "L". It looked big enough to house spacecraft but was completely abandoned. I was amazed: this meant that something intelligent had been here at some point. But looking out the window, I was disappointed: there was hard-packed dirt, and in the distance . . . trees? This did not fit my definition of Uranus:(

We decided to pretend that there was no solid surface outside, that the building was the only thing keeping us safe, floating on a layer of denser atmosphere while submerged in the layer above. I was hoping that by thinking this I would change the reality of it, but this didn't happen . . .


I think that the reason that I was having so much trouble finding two blue planets is because those toy planets of my husband's depict Uranus as a true purple.

[Lucidbulbs]

Wow, what great control! Sorry about the confusion you have over Uranus, but still, to be able to fly in space that long and pass so many planets before landing on one of your choice sounds nice.

Ick, tasteless colors. I didn't know they had tasks like that there (then again, I don't really know what ever goes on there anymore).

[dallyup52]

Interesting experience.  thanks for starting your DJ.

[Alex Lou]

I didn't know they had tasks like that there (then again, I don't really know what ever goes on there anymore).

Yeah, actually, going to Uranus is for a task there too.  Ninja9578 has us visiting all the planets in the solar system.  I only have Uranus and Mercury left.


So . . . I haven't been much into recording my dreams lately.  Being lazy isn't the only reason that I don't write them down; I also just end up not finding most of my dreams to be all that interesting once I'm awake.  For example, in the past few days I had a semi-lucid that was very similar to a semi-lucid I had before in which I knew that I was asleep but thought that I was looking at the real world, opening my eyes in my sleep.  Not all that interesting the second time around . . .  Or, what I thought was profound or a really interesting plot with dream-logic will end up making no sense.

Anyway, I had an interesting HI (I am using the right term right?) experience the other day.  While I was falling asleep I heard a body (living I think) hit the ground forcefully as if it were launched from a car crash or something and came down at an angle.  I don't know how I knew that this is what the sound was supposed to be since I didn't see anything.  After I heard it I wondered how I knew what a body falling would sound like and why I was hearing this.  By paying conscious attention to it I accidentally "replayed" the sound in my mind.  I wondered if the person would be badly injured; I was actually a bit concerned even though I knew it was just in my mind.  Wow, this makes me sound like a deeply disturbed person . . . I blame Bjork.



Zombie Apocalypse
Non-lucid

I entered the shrine behind the others, finally leaving the darkness of the underground tunnels.  The floor of the room formed a circle with two bronze snake stairways spiraling around each other into the air.  They didn't go anywhere.  Adults did rituals at the top of stairs in these shrines, just under the domed ceilings, but we hadn't seen any living adults in a long time.  I crossed to the arched doorway where light spilled in from outside and joined several of the others who were looking out.  It was a welcome scene: there was short, very green grass everywhere beneath a cloudless sky.  My brother stood beside me. 

"Is it safe?" I asked.

"No."

Everyone was heading out.  I followed.  We wandered a ways away from the shrine.  There was a chain-link fence some ways in front of us, and beyond that a road.  The day was so beautiful and the grass so soft.  I ran a bit away from the others, so happy to be out in the open.  As I stepped beneath the shade of a tree something rose up in front of me.  One of the Determined!  I hadn't seen it in the shadow.  It grabbed me.  I resisted, grabbing it in return and trying to push it away.  I didn't know how, but I knew that people could be changed into the Determined if they were attacked.  I didn't want it touching me!  Was it's touch enough to change me?  I found that I matched it in strength:  it's muscles had atrophied into green chords so that the bone was visible.  It's skin hung off, torn like the rags it wore.  I managed to shove it down, but it was back up in an instant, reaching for me again.

I must have yelled out, because the others had come running to help me.  My brother knocked it down again and then we were all running.  I ran down some steps in an opening in the fence to reach the road, continuing to run on the asphalt.  We would loop back to the shrine.  The others were too fast for me and the gap between us kept getting bigger.  I was the slowest, the youngest, the smallest.  I kept glancing back.  I didn't know if I could make it.  The Determined was keeping pace a distance behind me.  Then it disappeared.  Looking back for it all I saw was the peaceful, sunny day.  So quiet . . .

Ahead of me I saw the others pointing.  Then I spotted it:  on the other side of the fence it's shriveled hand moved along the grass on it's own.  It was as fast as the Determined had been.  I ran as fast as I could to where several of the others had stopped to wait for me.  Then we ran in a wide loop around the hand across the fragrant grass to the entrance of the shrine.

We went partway up the spiral bronze stairs to get away, even though we knew that The Determined would not come underground.  We waited.  We listened.

After a time, some of the others started looking out the entrance again, planning to go out.  I turned to my brother, "I don't understand.  We're safe underground.  Why don't we stay?"

"They don't like to come underground but they will.  As long as we come out sometimes they are willing to wait.  But if we stay they will come after us."

[Alex Lou]

This post is for keeping track of my data for the August-September study.  Guess I should mention that I notice that I'm more conservative in how I count my dreams than most people:  if there's a change in scene and plot but I move continuously from one thing to another (no lapse of consciousness in between) then I will consider it one dream. 

Date       Hours of Sleep       Physical Fatigue       Mental Fatigue       Focus       Lucid Dreams
8/13             4.5                          1                           4                    2                  0
8/14              7                            8                           7                    2                  0 
8/15              4                            7                           5                    2                  0
8/16              9                            8                           7                    3                  1(dreamed in the first 6 hours)
8/17              10                          6                           6                    2                  0
8/18             9.5                          3                           4                    1                  0
8/19             11                           3                           2                    1                  0
8/20             8.5                          1                           3                    4                  2 (one dreamed in the first 4 hours)
8/21             6.5                          7                           4                    2                  0
8/22              9                            7                           5                    2                  0
8/23             9.5                          7                           7                    2                  1(dreamed in the first 7.5 hours)
8/24              8                            6                           7                    1                  1(occurred at 1.5 hours of sleep)
8/25             8.5                          8                           5                    1                  5(two in the first 4 hours, nothing in the last half hour)
8/26              7                           8                            8                    1                  0
8/27              9                           9                            4                    1                  1
8/28              6                           7                            8                    1                  0
8/29              9                           8                            8                    1                  0
8/30             11                          6                            7                    1                  1
8/31              9                           9                            7                    2                  1
9/1              9.5                          4                            5                    1                  0
9/2                7                           8                            4                    1                  0
9/3                9                           9                            8                    2                  2
9/4               10                          9                            8                    2                  1
9/5                9                           6                            4                    2                  0
9/6               6.5                         6                            3                    1                  0
9/7               9.5                         8                            4                    1                  1
9/8               6.5                         5                            6                    2                  0
9/9               7.5                         7                            7                    4                  1(nap time)
9/10               7                          6                            5                    2                  0
9/11             5.5                         5                            4                     2                 1(nap)
9/12               6                          7                            5                    4                  2(nap)
9/13               7                          9                            8                    1                  0
9/14              11                         9                            7                     1                 1(nap)
9/15               5                          9                            6                    2                  1
9/16               4                          7                            6                    1                  0
9/17               9                          9                            5                    1                  0
9/18              11                         6                            7                     3                  0
9/19              3.5                        6                            7                     0                  0
9/20             11.5                       7                            10                    0                  0
9/21              10                         8                            6                     2                  1(nap)
9/22               9                          6                            4                    4                   1(nap)
9/23              6.5                        7                            7                     1                  0
9/24              10                         6                            5                     1                  0
9/25               8                          4                           4                     4                   2(nap)
9/26              7.5                        6                            6                     1                  0
9/27              9.5                        7                            8                     1                  1(at about 8 hours)
9/28               6                          4                            2                     1                  0
9/29               8                          3                            4                     1                  0
9/30              6.5                        5                            6                      2                  1(nap)

[Alex Lou]

My recall's in the dumps lately.  I guess I've just been too in a hurry to get up or go somewhere when I wake up in the morning.  I only know that I've been dreaming because I'll remember bits of dreams in the middle of the day.  I even forgot that I did one of the August challenges until I was washing a dish and it started coming back to me.  The experience of trying to breath fire came back to me . . . and for a few minutes I was really confused, I wasn't even sure that I'd really dreamed it.  But then, ever so slowly, the rest of the dream came back and it was as clear a memory to me as any dream remembered in the morning.  So strange that I'd forget such a high-functioning lucid in which I accomplished something.  And strange that I'd remember it randomly like that and over several minutes.

Anyway, today I was rather determined to have a decent lucid that I remember because it seems like it's been a while since I've done anything in my dreams.  So after I failed to WILD I did DEILD for the first time with the intent of becoming lucid (rather than just to continue a dream) and it worked quite beautifully:

LST
Lucid: DEILD

Probably because I was doing DEILD more intentionally than I'd ever done it before I was more aware of HI while falling back asleep.  It consisted of elements from my previous dream, DCs mostly, and seemed more vivid than most of my experiences with HI.  Next I'm looking at a computer screen.  I don't know exactly if it was a web page or what, but whenever I see words in my dreams I'm always excited to read them.  Once again I found that I could read.  The words were mostly arranged as two-word phrases, or sometimes three or a word by itself.  I found that they were all real words, although sometimes I had trouble reading them and had to carefully look at the letters.  Whenever a word wasn't at the center of my vision, the letters would get rearranged or switched out.  Most of it didn't make any sense and was just silly.  I laughed at the words and the way they rearranged themselves.  It seemed like I was getting better at reading in my dreams.  I wondered if practice improves it or if I was just reading so easily because I've been reading a lot during my waking hours.

But I could be entertained by this indefinitely and I had other things I wanted to do.  By my intent I could suddenly feel DCs all around me on my bed licking my naked body.  I dared not look down for fear that I wouldn't see them and it would all end right there.  But I could feel them; waves of erotic sensation washed over me as they licked.  After I was throughly aroused my focus turned to the DC with his mouth between my legs.  I had it in my head that he was male, but since I refused to look I supposed that this DC could be female.  The singular sensation from this DC was fantastic, but I remembered that I needed to have the DCs lick something off of me.  Whipped cream sounded tasty.  Mentally, I placed a gob of whipped cream directly where the DC was licking.  It felt wet and cold, a sensation that dissolved away as the DC continued. I started to feel that I was coming very close to orgasm and I wondered if it would be better to finish with the DC entering me.  As soon as I thought this I was suddenly on top of my husband in bed.  He had a smile on his face that he sometimes makes when he's finished and is just letting me do whatever I want.  He's very patient, but it's rather unexciting.  I wanted something different, or even someone different.  I tried to morph him into someone else, thinking of a character in the book I'm reading whose recent romance I found to be rather erotic (no it isn't a romance novel).  But my husband was very stable (I supposed that this was to be expected since I was in our bed) so I continued with him.  Unfortunately I could no longer feel much down there; just a slight sensation, only an echo of reality.

I finally decided that I'd grown tired of lucid dreaming of being in my room and walked out the door.  The scenery was very similar to my previous dream, but I thought it was my house now.  It was an building entirely made up of gray concrete with all right angles.  Like in my previous dream, my dad was also there.  I thought that I should breath fire for the challenge.  But then I wondered: What if I'm sleepwalking?  If I try to breath fire it will look really strange (Ugh!  This seems to be a theme for me lately.  Why can't I get it through my head that I don't sleepwalk?!).  I didn't know what my dad would think. 

As I was walking around I saw a pond.  It was full of green algae and stinky.  I decided to try walking on water.  I either went through or under (I'm not sure) the waist high metal fence surrounding the pond.  I stepped out . . . and fell into the water :(  I was grossed out by the foul water and quickly swam to some stepping stones to pull myself out.  Had I fallen in because I was sleepwalking?  Was I awake now?  I checked myself:  no, I still felt asleep.  Surely if I had been sleepwalking, the water would have woken me.  Is it possible to sleep through something like that?  After a few minutes I checked the shirt I was wearing and it felt dry and this served as proof to me that I had not fallen into a pond in reality.

Now I started flying around to further prove to myself that this was complete dream and while I was doing this my mom came home from work.  I thought that she wouldn't be able to see me, but she did.  She was really amazed to see me flying, "Look at that! Look what you can do!" She was both shocked and pleased.  I started showing off.  I landed on the ground and did some little jumps in slow motion as if I were on the moon and she gasped.  The I started jumping about 20 feet in the air in the same weightless kinda way.  Now I wanted to fly again, but I continued to have the slight gravity and couldn't stay off the ground.  I quickly realized that this was silly, told myself that I can fly in my dreams and flew into the air. 

Now I wondered what I was doing spending my entire lucid at my house.  I should go somewhere!  I flew up into the air at an angle, getting higher and higher.  But as I'm leaving my mom asks, "That's a cute skirt.  Where'd you get it?"  I paused to answer and I think I told her Burlington Coat Factory.  Now awake I know that the gray, pleated, knee-length skirt I was wearing wasn't mine at all but is a favorite of a friend of mine.  I've never even worn it.

I continued.  It was twilight and the sun had just vanished behind the horizon, leaving the sky to the west dully lit with pinks and purple.  I flew toward the light.

Then I heard my house mate talking loudly downstairs and woke up



Edit:  Did I predict the Challenge for September or what?  Walking on water . . . not the other thing . . .

[Alex Lou]

Weird HI:
As I'm falling asleep during a nap I'm looking at a instance in World of Warcraft (somewhere in Hellfire Citadel?) Some kind of big baddie is spontaneously combusting and charred bits are filling the air.  There's gooey bits of burnt, half-melted flesh that fell of the monster all over the floor.  A fork scoops up a bit with skin and wraps it around itself, long gray coarse fur on the outside.  The fork and it's prize are in front of me now and I know that it's meant for me to eat, I feel compelled.  Then I think to myself, Eew!  What the hell, why am I imagining this?! I resist and wake a bit.

[Sunshine]

(content removed by user request)

[dallyup52]

Great lucid ... very erotic.  Well written.

Hate it when things go dull down there and there is only an "echo of reality".

[Toast]

Impressive that you went through so much erotic stimulation and excitement, but then carried on with the LD afterwards... Maybe that's because you didn't orgasm. I don't think I've ever continued a dream after orgasm... I always wake up just as it happens.

[Lucidbulbs]

AHHHH! You're doing LST too?!? {It's not you, it's MB who's going to pick on me for it XD}

As dumb as this is going to make me sound, I didn't know you were married, you look way too young in your pictures (maybe you have the fountain of youth's secrets unlocked).

Odd HI, I would of tried to wake up ASAP too if I were you.

[Sunshine]

(content removed by user request)

[Alex Lou]

I wonder how many I forget.  Maybe lots; I'm sure a few, at least.  At least it came back to you.  I had that happen once, so I know that I am losing some that I don't happen to be reminded of and remember later.

Haha, all I remember of a lucid from the other day is that I thought, "Oh, I'm lucid dreaming.  I've gotta record this for the study."  This study is making me realize that I have a lotta lucids in the early hours of the night and that my chances of remembering them get slimmer and slimmer as I keep sleeping.

Oh, so close!  Better luck next time.

You mean with the orgasm?  Nah, this was really a total success.  I've only orgasmed once in a dream before for sure so I don't expect it.  And I may have in this one, but honestly I'm not sure.  If I did it wasn't anything spectacular.

As dumb as this is going to make me sound, I didn't know you were married, you look way too young in your pictures (maybe you have the fountain of youth's secrets unlocked).

Lol.  I'm 25.  It doesn't look much different than 18 but it's around when people start getting married.  We just got married in July.

Great lucid ... very erotic.  Well written.

Thanks.   I hadn't realized that I'd done anything approaching good writing with it.  I think I was just trying to state things as mildly as possible.

Impressive that you went through so much erotic stimulation and excitement, but then carried on with the LD afterwards... Maybe that's because you didn't orgasm. I don't think I've ever continued a dream after orgasm... I always wake up just as it happens.

The one time that it did I just opened my eyes for a sec then shut them again and continued with my dream.

[Mark]

wow that lucid was so great! nice one on doing the DEILD they are fairly hard to do

arnt DCs the best! lol and congrats on completing the LST I havent even gotten close to doing one yet lol! Shame you missed out on the feeling though thats annoying for you I bet.

ah I hate it when we spend most of the dream figuring out if we are in fact dreaming lol!

oh no!! you fell in the swamp water! thats bad he he kind of funny lol nice one on the aerobatics and flying, they are some of the best things to do in a lucid

[Alex Lou]

ah I hate it when we spend most of the dream figuring out if we are in fact dreaming lol!

Yeah, this dreaming about sleepwalking is really ridiculous.   It isn't enough to know that I'm asleep and dreaming, I also need the logic to know where my physical body is.  It's starting to bother me.