Lucid Dreaming
This is a factual account of a dream I had in which I was able to make concious decisions and remember these in some detail afterwards. When I awoke from the dream it was still so fresh in my mind that I thought it would be interesting to scribble out everything I could remember from it, then write an article about it for the Debates & Discussions area on GTAForums. You can view the article here or read the account on its own below.
Full Account of My Dream
To set the scene, the time was about 4am and I had put on BRMC’s self-title album on a very low volume with the intent of drifting off to sleep to it. I fell asleep around 0430 hours awoke at about 0500 hours, so this dream took about half an hour. I could hear no music in my dream but because my music system is so close to my pillow my entire dream had a dark green tint because of the display light! I only realised this lighting was unnatural when I awoke and recalled the dream.
The start of the dream is somewhat hazy to me. I remember some distinct events which took place during it but getting them in order and indentifying the first one has proven difficult. The earliest scene which I remember distinctly is using my home PC with a highly colourised audio analysis program to check what noises I had been making during my sleep on a previous night. I have some fragmented recollection that when I fell asleep my dream began with me still awake, then falling asleep. I was using the home PC to analyse what noises I had been making because I had some of suspicion that I had been having odd dreams of some sort.
I cannot quite place what this suspicion was of, how the audio had been recorded or anything like that but whilst watching and listening to the playback I remembered a sound which I seemed to have created during the suspicious dream at the start. This recognition of the sound seemed to indicate that whatever suspicion I had had about the previous dream, it was true and made me start thinking about my present situation in front of this strange audio program. I could not recall every getting this program and the more I thought about it, the more senseless my current predicament became...until I reached the revalation that I was still within a dream!
To test this theory, I went back to my bedroom (the dream had so far taken place at my normal home, which was arranged correctly) to see if my body was still asleep in the bed. I cannot recall why I thought this was likely but my body was not there. I then noticed the window and this got me thinking about whether I could really prove to myself that I was in a dream. I decided that if I could jump through the double-glazed window I would have to be in a dream because in reality it is far too strong.
I walked to the opposite side of the room and tried to run towards the window but I still had doubts, so I ended up just pressing my hands against the glass. I decided to try again, this time I managed a brisk walk and hit the window quite hard with my hands. Nothing terrible seemed to have happened so my confidence grew. I tried a third time, managing a good run and really concentrated as I hit the window but somehow my intense concentration prevented me from breaking the window.
I walked back to the other side of the room and as I turned to face the window again I noticed the panes had re-arranged themselves. I was now totally convinced that I was in a dream, so I sprinted towards the window with every confidence I would smash it - and indeed I did. I gently descended to the ground without specifically trying to and then contemplated what to do next.
I cannot remember what I actually did immediately next but the next event which I recall was walking up a cobbled road in what seemed to be an English seaside town. After interacting with some of the other people on this road I noticed a toy car trundling down the hill towards me. It was gathering speed and seemed to be being driven by a motionless character. It was heading straight towards me, so I walked towards the left edge of the road. The toy car altered course to continue towards me, so I dived to the right and it narrowly missed me. I remember thinking that it would have been really bad if that toy had been a full-sized vehicle..when I noticed a fleet of full-sized versions of that car were hurtling down the hill towards me!
I tried dodging but it was no use, they filled the entire street. At the last moment I jumped upwards and managed to continue the jump against gravity for long enough to clear the first row of cars. I landed safely in an open-top car which had been following the others. I had not been that scared to see them approaching and I had not been injured by landing in this car, which made me feel pretty safe. The car rolled to a stop with the driver still motionless, so I hopped out and noticed the shop it had stopped outside of. I decided to go inside.
I cannot remember what was inside the shop but I think I went through to the back where there were normal rooms. I remember exploring the rooms, opening many different types of door to do this. At one point there were three doors directly behind each other but none of the doors I tried were locked. There were several cupboards and closets that I looked in, all full of domestic tools like mops and brooms. A white cat occasionally walked in and mewed at me, so I petted it, calling it "LB" as it reminded me of a cat by that name who I know in reality.
I remember having a suspicion that one of the closets I opened had a false back, so I kicked it in and indeed there was a tiny room behind it, again full of brooms and suchlike. I did not find any stairs leading outside, so I left the building and used my jumping abilities to explore the neighbourhood.
I think I was looking for people to talk to so that I could try and find out what this place was. There were no people present though and I seemed to have forgotten how to fly so I could only explore the immediate vicinity. Looking back at the dream, I realise that I was only able to do things which I felt were normal; when I concentrated on doing anything I was not able to do it.
One of the places I ended up entering was a supermarket. I figured there should be lots of people inside but there was only one: Sharon Stone. I have no idea why her but there were numerous variants of her, from a bride to an amputee tramp scooting along on a modified shopping trolley, shouting and cursing. The market became increasingly crowded with myriads of these variants who were all pushing trolleys around. One was pushing a huge line of trolleys and she crashed it into the wall. The noise of all this metal scraping along was seemed so lound and horrible it shocked me out of my dream.
I awoke with a sharp intake of breath. After a few seconds I began to wonder whether I really was awake again because I could remember the revalation I had in front of the computer during the dream. I looked around the room for something to convince me and noticed the curtains were closed. I thought about getting out of bed to check if the window was broken. As I started to shift my weight I realised that I could feel the pressure of my body against the bed, the tension of the muscles in my neck and the temperature of the air. These sorts of sensory details had been completely absent in my dream, so I became confident that I truelly was awake again and began drafting this account.