Taking action in a lucid #dream

The nightly routine of quiet reading, NyQuil, and melatonin continues to set the stage for successful lucid dreaming.

Most of these dreams find me as a passive observer, even though I’m fully ware that I’m dreaming at the time thus qualifying the experience as a lucid dream (at least, that qualifies them in my opinion). However, I finally made the decision during a dream to play a more active role, to enter into conversation with someone there.

In my dream…

…I first found myself being entertained by a small boy, maybe four or five years old, who was wearing an “Elvis is King” tee-shirt and singing Elvis Presley songs. He was trying to do an Elvis impersonation and was actually pretty funny.

We were sitting in the stands of a large auditorium, rather removed from most of the other people, some of whom were snacking, some of whom were chatting, most of whom were watching the action of a martial arts competition down on the main floor. The boy was standing next to has father who was busy analyzing chess games stored in a Correspondence Chess Post-A-Log, and had a book of annotated games and a clipboard on which he was studiously entering notes. When his son moved a few seats away from us to sing to another group of folks, I decided to see if I could more actively participate in the dream. I commented to the father, “Ah! A Post-A-Log. I’ve got one like it at home, but it looks like yours is a lot busier than mine.”

He looked over at me and replied, “Busy!” Then holding up his clipboard, he continued, “I’m trying to finish an article for publication and I’m right up against a deadline.” And he resumed working.

I turned my attention then to the main floor of the auditorium where mats were spread out and and the fighters and judges were busy. And then…

I woke up.

Two Hours of Lucid Dreaming

I’m not sure what the exact conditions were that caused or enabled my two hours of lucid dreaming this morning, but I’d sure like to repeat the experience! I suspect that there were both internal and external factors at work.

Earlier this week I had a night and day of nasty sinuses and massive insomnia that included wave after wave of intense lucid dreaming episodes. The dream experiences themselves were nice, but coming as frequently and with the intensity they did, the only thing I could do was spend a lot of time in bed and just let them happen. Given the nature of my situation (living alone, fully retired, no outside responsibilities, a flexible schedule over which I have total control) this was no problem.

Today’s lucid dreaming was different in that it was much more manageable. When I began waking, I turned my head on the pillow to see the digital display on my clock-radio. It was a few minutes past 9:00 AM. Since I’d gotten to sleep at 2:00 AM, this gave me seven hours of good, restful sleep. Realizing I had no time-sensitive chores facing me, I was very relaxed. And since there was no outside commotion to disturb me, my state of mind was very calm.

The light-headedness that often precedes and accompanies my lucid dreaming experiences was with me, so I closed my eyes and let the experience begin. In no time at all, the first of many vivid dreams began. Though I was fully aware of where I was and when, and though I was capable of rousing myself, of leaving the dream state and busying myself with chores of the day, there was no real need or desire to do so. So I didn’t. I just lay there and let the dreams unfold.

After several interesting and enjoyable dreams, I again looked at the bedside clock. When I saw it displaying 11:00 AM, the decision was made to rise and get busy with my day. And I did that without any trouble.

Shortly after “fully” waking at 11:00 AM, I still had very clear memory of between five and seven of those dreams. No, I didn’t write down any notes. Wish I had. But even now, so many hours later, I can still remember three of them.

It’s my intention to repeat the pattern of medication and preparation from last night to see if I can repeat that delightful lucid dreaming experience. This will involve double-dosing with NyQuil at approximately Midnight or 1:00 AM, listening to the radio from bed or reading until about 2:00 AM, then taking 5 mg. of melatonin before turning off the lights and closing my eyes. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

“Flash” dreaming?

I suppose there must be a technical term for the particular kind of lucid dreaming I’ve been experiencing recently but, for the life of me, I have no idea what it might be. They’ve been coming more frequently over the last few days.

At first I was calling them “fireworks” dreams for the way vivid images would streak quickly across my consciousness in sometimes rapid succession. The closest analogy to them that comes to mind is watching a fireworks show. The waking reality in which I find myself is represented by the night sky, and the bleachers or park in which I’m sitting watching the show. And the brilliant fireworks that flash and boom, monopolizing my attention, would be the lucid dreams that come one after another after another…

When this happens, the only thing to do is head over to the bed, place head to pillow, relax and enjoy the show. An episode of this “flash” dreaming can be as short as ten or fifteen minutes or as long as an hour or more. And sometimes it can segue into a restful sleep segment.

Interesting things, these “flash” dreams.

A strange football assignment

This major episode of insomnia through which I’m currently moving (no sleep for the past 32 hours… and counting) is starting to provide some vivid lucid dreams. The one which passed a few minutes ago was… entertaining.

In my dream…

…which occurred as I was resting in bed, fully aware of my surrounding and situation, I was in a football locker room, being issued my gear by the equipment manager for the upcoming Summer pre-season workouts.

With my arms full of the pads, pants, jerseys, cleats, and helmet, I found my way over to my assigned locker. Before loading the gear into my locker, I set the stuff down on a bench. Picking up my helmet first, it being on top of the stack, I noticed right away the number 24 in decals stuck to the helmet’s backside. 24? 24?! WTF? That’s a halfback’s number! And I’m an interior lineman! My number has always been 64!

Surely the coaches weren’t expecting me to play halfback this season! Were they?! Maybe the equipment manager goofed.

Before I could investigate this mystery, the lucid dream faded.

Bloodrayne: lucid dreams

After fighting the forces of darkness called up from Hell by an old voodoo priestess on the streets of Toledo in a fight which left that city largely destroyed, Bloodrayne suddendly finds herself in that city which mysteriously shows no sign of the battle. No sign of it at all.

She’s in the street outside a hospital. Walking inside, she finds the old voodoo priestess being pronounced dead.

Text blocks on the story’s last page contain Bloodrayne’s thoughts as she remembers the incident:

No one ever figured out what happened to me, let alone how I wound up in Toledo.

Lord Michaelis said I might have experienced a wake-initiated LUCID DREAM.

He also theorized I may have been part of a very powerful TULPA — a thoughtform of an extremely powerful mind that was manifesting an alternate reality on some metaphysical plane of existence.

Whatever.

He can wax philosophical all he wants, but I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure.

[...]

The page above is found in Bloodrayne: Prime Cuts #3, in the short story titled Princess of Darkness, written by Chad Lambeert and featuring art by Oscar Bazaldua. This comic book carries a March 2009 publication date from Digital Webbing.