Lucid Dreaming 1

Lucid Dreaming 1

Okay, I'll admit it. I found this trippy Lucid Dreaming thing on Wikibooks the other day. Even if I don't look like it, I totally love cheesy mind expanding stuff like this whether it works or not.

For those of you not in the "know" and are too lazy to check out that link, Lucid Dreaming is basically where you have a dream and you're fully aware of everything that's going on. You can interact with it and do things that are blatantly impossible in real life. It's like a single-user virtual reality, all powered by your subconscious.

Anyway, I decided to try this thing out. I used a combination of the WBTB and MILD techniques (that is to say, before I went to bed I mentally repeated "I'm going to sleep. I'm going to dream. I'm going to realize I'm dreaming. I'm not going to wake up," woke up again at midnight, wrote down some key words to record what I dreamed, then repeated the phrase to myself and went to sleep again) just to see what would happen. The results? Rather interesting, I might say.

The first dream basically started in my room, in my bed. You know, the same place I was sleeping. It was kind of dark, but I could still see. Well, not really see, but I could sense my surroundings. You know, well enough to realize I was an anthropomorphic ferret boy. I mean, I not only had the appearance of Meeba there, but it also felt like I was him. I could feel that I definitely had the muzzle and tail and stuff. In fact, after I woke up in the morning, my upper lip (that would be eliminated in the presence of a muzzle) was numb.

But, anyway. At that point I was basically just, like, "Hey, wait a second! I'm not really a ferret boy! I must be dreaming!" I took a look outside the window. The visuals were getting a little more clear, but they still took effort to maintain. Like I had to mentally suggest to myself, "Man, everything looks so real!" over and over. After that I fell out of the window onto the back porch. This is particularly unusual because, normally, those windows have this thing called "glass" that prevents things from passing through them in most situations. The fall was rather instantaneous, though.

One note about how much control over my actions: I could definitely decide to do something by thinking about it, but it was nearly impossible to think about something without doing it. I mean, imagine some omnipotent person having really bad ADD. That's kind of what it felt like I was, excluding perhaps the full the extent of omnipotence. Like I could still relate to other, normal folks.

Speaking of normal folks, it was about this time that I decided for Alejandro (a character in my stories) to show up. He just appeared out of nowhere after that, standing right beside me. He looked and dressed just like you'd expect him to from what I've written about him. The odd thing is that I didn't feel like I was in direct control of what he was saying. You know, like he had free will, despite the fact that I was supposedly able to do anything.

Now, I can't remember exactly what he said, but I remember he addressed me specifically as Meeba. My real, birth name was not mentioned anywhere in this dream. He did frequently ask me if I was dreaming, to which I responded yes. This is likely because it was listed as one of the techniques for maintaining lucidity.

Shortly, I thought to myself something along the lines of "Hm... What if someone else was here?" and called in another character. Of course, given the impulsive nature of these dream actions, I didn't have much time to think and summoned Alejandro... again. Alejandro (both of them) was like "...Wait, what?" and I dismissed one of them. He didn't seem to mind.

Now, I'm not sure exactly what it was, but something made me realize that I could float and stuff. I made a single leap down the flights of stairs that led down from my porch. I was basically filled with awe about all this. After that, I decided "Hey! Why don't I try out some of that stuff I read?" And so I went to an all you can eat buffet where I intended to gorge myself.

This part's a little... well, blurry, but basically Alejandro and Pedro (another character) showed up and helped me shovel food into my mouth. My stomach was visibly getting bigger and stuff-- you know, like the cartoon eating-too-much syndrome. Dante (yet another character) walked in and Alejandro was all like, "Hey, Dante! Give us a hand!" Dante, true to his character, grumbled but reluctantly helped out. About this point, my stomach (my REAL stomach, I mean) started to feel rather stuffed. Dante started staring at me eye-to-eye, and some other stuff probably happened, but my midnight alarm rang and I woke up.

After recording some keyword notes (with no light, no less) I went back to sleep. I was in my normal body again. Well, normal anthro ferret body, but... you know, skinny, tall, like normal. This one started in some rather different scenery, though. I was by myself on this black plane (not an airplane) of nothingness. The only thing around was a spotlight shining on me. There was music playing, though. It was the introduction to "King of Pain" by The Police. Unlike the music in the other parts of these dreams, (which was frequently "Angel of Death" by Slayer-- obviously unrelated to anything) this one actually felt like it was connected to the scenery, somehow. Incidentally, I listened to the song this morning and I felt lightheaded momentarily. Significant? Maybe, maybe not.

Anyway, pretty soon something invisible (or maybe just shrouded by darkness) grabbed my tail and started dragging me. During this, there was an odd sensation of movement and pain. I mean, it wasn't like when I consciously think of some anthro character having something done to their tail. (For instance, Kalle and frequent dismemberment) It's like... it was actually a part of my body I was used to having. It's like I understood what it meant to have a tail.

Momentarily, the floor underneath me... well, broke for some reason. I fell again-- instantaneously, as before. I had escaped whatever horror was grabbing my tail. The later events of this dream are a bit less clear than the other one. I can remember some varied scenery-- curvy hills striped in green-ish blue colors with trees sparsely decorating them, jutting up at strange angles. What I remember the most is Dante, though. I kept calling him in, for some reason. It got to the point where he would complain to me about it. I mean, literally, straight up in my face:

Dante: "Meeba, why do you keep calling me?"
Me: :>
Dante: "...Do you want me to ask you if you're dreaming or not?"
Me: "Yes, I am dreaming."

But it was weird. There wasn't any kind of cruel, not-really-possible stuff I wanted to do to him. I just wanted to talk to him about stuff. I can't remember what, but it's what I did. Actually, I think at one point I tried giving the controls over my dream to him... but it didn't work.

I think that's about it. It was definitely an interesting experience. Maybe not 100% 5 senses perception or 100% do-anything-you-want, but it was a heck of a lot more vivid and interactive than my other dreams.