Dream 1053 (LUCID DREAM)

'Fighting Evil 'Testafan' with Lightsabers'

Date: 1 January 2020

Sleep times: 15:00 - 19:00 hours

Dream type:

• Spontaneous lucid dream - no induction attempts made
• DILD (dream-initiated lucid dream)
• Lucidity triggered by questioning bizarre dream events in normal non-lucid dream scene (the appearance of my attacker 'Testafan' who was supposedly in prison)
• No reality check
• No dream stabilisation required/attempted
• Moderate dream control
• Duration: perceived as at least an hour

Additional: 

• Dream Incubation Experiment - A Star Wars Adventure (Version 2) (Day 13) - Partially successful
• Afternoon nap following 5 days of heavy alcohol consumption and reduced cannabis intake (possible REM Rebound Effect)
• No dreams recalled over previous 3 nights, despite standard length sleep (6 - 8 hours per night)

Scene 1 (normal/non-lucid)

Location: My flat in Norwich - a composite between my actual flat and the Student Union bar (Red Bar, specifically by entrance)
Time: Day

I was in my flat in Norwich, which was also the Student Union bar on the campus where I live. I knew that I was 'at home' even though there was more clues as to me being in the SU Bar than my actual flat, which is a 1 minute walk away. There were no other dream characters present and I only faced in one direction as far as I can recall, so I am not sure what the rest of the room looked like. I was standing to the right of the entrance, just inside the doorway, where there was also a small round wooden table. I could see through the glass entrance doors/windows, therefore I knew it was daytime. I was talking on my mobile phone to my friend LD1. I am not sure what we talked about. I ended the call, and placed my mobile phone onto the small round table.

• I had mentioned to my uncle GC1 that he should visit me on campus and we could drink in the SU Bar. I had also mentioned the price of drinks in the SU Bar (compared with up North, where everything is cheaper) to someone in a separate conversation.
• Shortly before I took this nap, I had been whatsapp messaging my best friend, LD1.

Scene 2 (normal/non-lucid)

Location: A composite between the ground-level parking area outside my flat and an elevated concrete area (upper walkway) outside the upper level of the Student Union Building and the Student Services Building - in the dream this was located in one place - directly in front of the row of houses my flat is within.
Time: Day - perhaps approaching dusk?

I was then in the elevated concrete area described above. I could look down onto my house from a height which was greater than possible if I was standing on one of the upper walkways of the campus. The location was right where the car park should be.

• My parents had dropped me off in the car parking area opposite my flat at around 13:30 hours.

I was standing at a picnic bench (there are some picnic benches outside the SU and SS buildings). I also had a strong sense of this area reminding me of my Nan's garden in Sheringham, although I do not know why. It felt like the sky was darkening, but it was still daylight. There was a male dream character standing with me at the picnic table, but I cannot recall anything about him. I (we) were joined by LD1. I then became aware that I did not have my mobile phone with me, which caused me to panic. LD1 then said that he had found my mobile phone and thought it was a 'prank' or 'imitation' one, not my real one, and therefore thrown it in a bin. The bin was one of the standard metal communal rubbish bins, with just a long rectangular slit across the top. I knew this bin was also on the upper level, where we were located - just a short distance away 'behind us'. I could now see that instead of the concrete steps which exist between levels on the campus walkways, there was a steep grass slope which led down to the ground level where my house was. I could now see for miles - not university campus buildings, but rather the open air, green hills and fields and trees. I was very angry with LD1 and demanded that he retrieve my phone from the bin. I was telling him that he was stupid for thinking it was an imitation phone and that he should have checked before binning it. LD1 was apologetic and said he would easily be able to retrieve my phone, which he walked off to do. I was stressed and anxious about getting my phone back safely. I said something to the unknown/unrecalled male dream character about how I was hoping my phone wasn't broken as a result of being put in the bin. I cannot recall his response. LD1 returned with my phone. I opened the case and saw there was a tiny chip on the screen. I showed LD1 and expressed the fact I was angry. LD1 did not think the chip in the phone screen was serious. I decided not to stress about it and put my phone away.

• My uncle GC and I had a number of conversations about crime over the past few days - I referred to 'imitation weapons' during one
• I noticed one of my front teeth was chipped in real life
• On the drive home from Hull, Yorkshire, my stepdad noticed a new chip in the windscreen of his car (from a stone/piece of gravel etc most likely)
• I had returned to campus (known as 'the concrete jungle' due to its architectural style) after a journey through the countryside.

Scene 3 (normal/non-lucid)

Location: A coastal town - in a car
Time: Day
I was then a passenger in a car driver by the unrecalled/unknown male dream character. LD1 was in the back of the car. We were driving through a picturesque coastal town. I could see cottages and the sea, with sail boats on it. It seemed as if it was sunny now, but I knew it was the same day. While driving down the winding roads, I also had the contemporaneous experience of viewing the scenery as a series of open picture books, which were illustrated in a way which gave me a strong impression of remembering books from my childhood.

• Hull is a port. I had also discussed coastal towns (my home county is on the coast)
• My family had been discussing clearing out my Nan's house in Sheringham - my cousin HM and I had talked about how all our childhood toys are still stored there.

Scene 4 (normal/non-lucid)

Location: My flat in Norwich
Time: Day
I was then back in my flat in Norwich - it felt like I had just got back from the trip to the coastal town where I had been in the previous dream scene. I was alone in my house, standing beside the kitchen counter, where my landline phone is. I was expecting a call from my boyfriend AJ(R) who is in prison. The phone rang. I answered it. It was not AJ, but I could tell that the person was a man in prison. I did not know his identity. I was aware this was a malicious prank call and I wondered how the unknown prisoner had got my number. I was shouting at him, asking him who it was and why he was calling me. I felt threatened and intimidated. The man on the other end of the phone would only make a high-pitched whistling sound, which was perceived as a threat of danger to me. I was in terror. I hung up the phone. It rang again. It was the prisoner man whistling at me. I was shouting at him to leave me alone, or I would get someone to sort him out (the implication being with violence). I also said that the prison would be monitoring or recording the phone call and the man would be in trouble for harassing and threatening me. I was confused as to why this man was targeting me. The phone call ended. 

• Various aspects of day residue from recent conversations involving phone calls from prison, threatening behaviour and crime. 
• I was waiting to see if AJ would call me, as we had ended a phone call on bad terms the night before.
• My stepdad had been whistling on the way home.
• When I returned home from my family wedding I saw I had a missed call on my landline from AJ, despite him knowing I was away and only available on my mobile phone.

Scene 5 (fully lucid)

Location: My flat in Norwich
Time: Day
I walked through to my bedroom, which was still the living/room, kitchen, but with my bedroom door and cupboards there (so a composite of the location I had just been in and my bedroom). There was a male dream character there - who I knew was the threatening/whistling prisoner. I knew his name was 'Testafan' at this stage, although I am not sure how I knew this information, as he did not say his name to me. He was tall and thin and very pale skinned with greasy black hair slicked back, around collar-length. He had pointy facial features and was approximately 40 years old. He looked a bit like a vampire, or definitely a gothic type and was quite weak and decrepit-looking, although I knew he was not as frail as he looked. He was dressed in black clothing. The fear at seeing Testafan and wondering how he had instantaneously escaped prison and entered my flat in search of me made me spontaneously lucid. 

• The appearance of Testafan was the same as a local man my parents had described who was nice, but would suddenly turn nasty and aggressive. This was during a conversation about the 'most dangerous' types of people often being someone who you would not physically expect to be powerful and violent. He is a chef. I had been watching clips from Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares series before I took this nap.
• There had been a violent, aggressive drunken female guest at my aunt's wedding (she was forced to leave early due to her behaviour).
• 'Testafan' may relate to 'Tesla cars' - as I had seen references to them online earlier.
• I had been driving in a car with my parents - I always remember in the 1990s they would play Gloria Estefan tapes in the car. During the contemporaneous car journey they had discussed what CDs to play in the car - they played The Beach Boys (and I listened to the song 'Barbara Ann' (1965). We then discussed their connection to notorious cult leader and 'murderer' Charles Manson (1934 - 2017).
• My Mum's first name is Stephanie.

As soon as I became lucid, I calmed down, as the threat was lessened by the fact I knew I was in a dream. I still felt some threat however, although it was more about knowing I had to deal with Testafan. My first thought was to summons another dream character to come and help me fight Testafan. I looked at my bedroom door, and shouted: 'Someone come and help me!' Nothing happened. I kept shouting this, willing for someone to materialise. I did not try to visualise anyone in particular as I thought it might be easier to just let any dream character appear rather than someone specific. I then saw my friend GG's face partially pop round the door, which was open. His face seemed to materialise slowly, as if it was a computer loading glitchy graphics. I thought this was because my dream control was poor and I concentrated hard on making GG appear as a solid form. I am not aware of what Testafan was doing while I tried to bring GG into my dream properly, as my attention was focused on this task. As soon as GG appeared in the dream, I became aware LD1 was also now present in the room with us. I also knew that neither GG nor LD1 would help me fight Testafan, as hey were both passive and seemed to want to observe the fight rather than actively participate in it. I can recall now from this scene tha GG was wearing a white football shirt and grey tracksuit bottoms and LD1 was wearing a thick navy knitted jumper. This is all the detail I took in. The room then seemed too change, so that it lost a lot of it's detail and just looked like an empty, yet well-lit space with walls on either side boxing us in. It had the feel of being 'modern' or 'space age' to me, without there being anything in particular to give me this impression. It was like all the extraneous detail was stripped away. 

• I had messaged GG shortly before my nap, asking if he was free that afternoon and we had a short whatsapp conversation - I was expecting to meet him later that evening.

Testafan then lunged at me and began grappling/wrestling with me, but it was more like we were holding hands and just pushing and pulling each other. Neither of us could get the better of one another, and I knew Testafan was the physically stronger of us both. I felt pretty much as physically powerful as I would in real life - I was exerting a lot of energy and felt overwhelmed in defending myself. GG and LD1 were still not participating in any way. I decided I needed a weapon, so given my current Dream Incubation Experiment - A Star Wars Adventure (Version 2), I decided to get a lightsaber. I imagined having a lightsaber in my hand - visualised it, and I got one - but it was a plastic toy, with an extendable blade (blue). It was no use. I tried again to visualise a real lightsaber, imagining the weight in my hand, using my imagination. I imagined the heavy, cold metal of the hilt. I then got a lightsaber - Anakin Skywalker's blue lightsaber. However, it only worked if I imitated lightsaber sound effects with my mouth. Just as in real life, I was useless at imitating a realistic lightsaber sound, so my lightsaber was really weak, and almost impossible to keep ignited, which was frustrating. There was a sense of dread. I knew Testafan had Luke Skywalker's green lightsaber. I knew I could never duel with my enemy with the rubbish lightsaber I had, so I used The Force to imagine I had the red sith lightsaber of Darth Vader. I was successful in controlling this aspect of the lucid dream, which made me feel exhilarated and pleased. It seemed to take a while for the lightsaber blade to fade from blue through to white, yellow, then red. The blade was not stable either - it was crackly and sparky. When I began duelling with Testafan, it was as hard to fight with a lightsaber (without skills,training or experience) as if I was expected to do it in real life. It was really heavy and hard to swing or connect blows. It was physically exerting and tiring. I spent most of my time deflecting Testafan's blows as trying to make my own unsuccessful ones. I thought the best thing to do would be to use The Dark Side of the Force (channelling my anger, fear, hate etc) into more physical power. This was not as successful as it should have been. The lightsaber duel was still awful and chaotic and also slower than it would be if either I or Testafan were competent lightsaber users. Neither of us were winning or losing, but it was a constant battle which was taking it's toll. 

We had moved into my living room/kitchen area, which again, appeared to be a composite of that and the SU bar - I could see the toilets and the red (it may no longer be red, but it used to be, hence the name 'the Red Bar') velvet sofas and tables in front of the pool tables. GG and LD1 were still not helping me fight Testafan, but I knew they supported me. I was only ever aware of their presence if I focused on them, or they attracted my attention. The rest of the time I was so engaged in the lightsaber fight with Testafan, that my surroundings were not clear to me. I forgot they existed. Everything felt as if it was in real time, with little time dilation (as is common in lucid dreams). The fight was so physically draining that it seemed to last for far too long. During the lucid dream, I actually thought to myself that it was weird how my lucid dream was so stable and clear - I felt so grounded within the dream, it was ironic. My perception of this experience was that it was not enjoyable like I would have imagined it to be. I was in fight or flight mode and I did not like the feeling. I also hated the fact I was bound by a lot of my own physical limitations.

I saw Leon because he stood on one of the red sofas in front of me while I was fighting Testafan. I noticed there were wooden shelves above his head, but I did not see what was on them. Any dialogue was not obvious to me - again, my focus was on defending myself frantically while trying to attack Testafan, to little effect. We kept locking lightsaber blades in a very awkward and amateur way. The Force was not seeming to help as much as I hoped it would. I wondered if it was because I wasn't actually Force-sensitive. This seemed like the likely solution as to why I wasn't as powerful as Darth Vader. 

Leon then pulled Testafan backwards through my open front door (which was wear the SU toilets had just been - now it appeared to be much more like my flat looks in real life). We entered out onto a typical city street, with tall commercial-looking buildings on either side of the road (shops, offices etc) - everything looked grey and almost old-fashioned. It also looked grey in terms of sky - as if it had been, or might, rain. Leon was nearby, encouraging me. I heard him telling me to beat Testafan. I could see GG a short distance away, behind Testfan, and also felt his encouragement and support. I continued to lightsaber dual with Testafan and imagine using The Force to help me. It was really hard to keep my lightsaber constantly ignited. The dream ended when Testafan turned into a bat and flew off - this is probably because I perceived him to look vampiric earlier in the dream.

Wilfrido Limvalencia, Swan's Cove

Serena, Bus Ride Through Fowey

J.L. Munro, Nantucket Harbor

 Josephine Grundy, High Tide

Josephine Grundy, Spring is in the Air

Police Artist sketch of 'Testafan'

 Star Wars lightsaber designs

Anakin Skywalker

Darth Vader

Luke Skywalker

A bat

Common Lucid Dreaming Mistakes

It is common for beginner lucid dreamers to struggle with inducing their first successful lucid dream. Lack of progress in lucid dreaming can be very frustrating and disheartening. Even when you do experience lucid dreaming for the first time, it is common to discover that your early experiences do not quite match up with the anecdotal evidence of other lucid dreamers or recorded accounts of what the lucid dream experience is like for others. The key here is to analyse what errors you might be making in your approach to lucid dreaming, and to continue with your lucid dreamwork - don't give up!

Here are the common mistakes and errors made by lucid dreamers!

Lacking sufficient motivation & dedication

Learning how to lucid dream takes a lot of commitment. Many beginner lucid dreamers expect to see results too soon (this might be due to misleading or very subjective accounts of lucid dreaming from others, which raise their expectations as to seeing instantaneous results). Inducing a lucid dream requires you to pre-programme or 'hack' your brain and mentally train yourself to do something extraordinary. This inevitably requires effort and groundwork, but success will happen eventually. 

Even as a spontaneous or 'natural' lucid dreamer, I find it really difficult to begin intentionally lucid dreaming after a hiatus from my active dreamwork - and I've been practicing lucid dream induction for years! Mastering every brand new skill is a process of trial and error and recognising where you are going wrong and how you can improve. Lucid dreaming is a lifelong journey, not a destination! 

Many expert accounts of lucid dreaming suggest that with intensive daily commitment to lucid dreamwork, a beginner can experience their first lucid dream between 3 - 21 days, but this will not be true of everyone. If you are having difficulty with lucid dream induction, ask yourself exactly how committed you are to learning the techniques and methods properly? Are you going through the motions, or really investing yourself? Many beginner lucid dreamers are simply paying lip service to the techniques and methods - for example, the performance of regular reality checks. 

There are many different techniques and methods for lucid dream induction, which can be used in isolation, or combined for more greater effect. This does not mean that every technique or method will work the same for everyone - take time to work with each technique and method, and experiment with combining them (for example, MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming) and the Wake-Back-to-Bed method). Lucid dreaming requires discipline!

Poor dream recall

Good dream recall is the foundation of all dreamwork, and especially lucid dream induction. Learning good dream recall increases the intensity and vividness of your dreams, which in turn increases the levels of your self-awareness while in the dream itself - this is vital for lucid dreaming. If you have poor dream recall, you might have a spontaneous lucid dream, but simply not remember it upon waking. One way of dramatically improving your dream recall, with almost immediate results, is to use a mantra (mnemonic technique) as you are falling asleep - mentally repeat a mantra in your head, telling yourself that you will remember your dreams when you wake up. The make sure that you record your dreams as soon as you wake up, while that transient dream memory is fresh in your mind. Keeping a dream journal is essential for lucid dream induction!

Lacking focus in your lucid dream induction techniques

This mistake usually manifests itself as trying too many different techniques and methods all at once, without really understanding the basics of how and why any of them work. This means that you simply cannot employ the techniques or methods mindfully, and are attempting to approach lucid dreaming from all angles, which leads to a superficial form of dreamwork, lacking care and accuracy. Lucid dream induction is a steady and purposeful process - don't overload yourself with every new technique or method you learn about or try to force lucid dreaming too quickly.

Many beginner lucid dreamers are attracted to the more novel or unusual lucid dream induction techniques or methods and jump straight to trying these enthusiastically, before putting in sufficient groundwork to learn the tried-and-tested basics, such as MILD (Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreaming) technique, which has had proven results that have been verified under scientific conditions. This is not to say that the more novel or unusual lucid dream induction techniques will not work - there is anecdotal evidence which suggests that some lucid dreamers find them highly successful. The point is, that many of these more novel techniques or methods are premised on the basis that the lucid dreamer had already achieved increased their conscious awareness (i.e. using reality checks) and began to pre-programme their mind using mental (i.e. mnemonic) techniques/methods. They are not a replacement for learning the foundations of lucid dreaming.

If you are trying multiple lucid dream induction techniques or methods simultaneously and you successfully induce a lucid dream - how could you be sure what part of your dreamwork was effective? 

Neglecting to use, or over-reliance on, lucid dreaming supplements

Many lucid dreaming purists reject the use of lucid dreaming supplements, believing that lucid dreaming is a skill which should be learned through mental techniques. Indeed, any supplement which claims to be a magic solution for lucid dreaming should be approached with scepticism and caution - there are companies who unscrupulously chase profit over legitimacy, charging high prices for ineffective products. 

A little bit of research will reveal that there are a number of lucid dreaming supplements (oneirogens) which are proven to increase conscious awareness within the dream state. However, lucid dreaming supplements are not an alternative to learning the basic techniques and methods of lucid dream induction - you should combine these approaches and certainly not rely on the supplements to fast-track your success. If you are hesitant to introduce any supplements or vitamins into your diet, there are a number of natural foods which can also yield some effect in increasing the chances of lucid dreaming - for example, foods which are high in tryptophan or Vitamin B6. 

Remember to consult a doctor or healthcare professional before you take any supplements or vitamins, particularly if you are young, pregnant or have an existing health condition. And be careful when buying products online - research will help you ensure you are purchasing a safe and reliable product which is legal in your jurisdiction. 

Sleep deprivation

The majority of our dreams - and certainly lucid dreams - take place in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of the sleep cycle. Therefore, it follows that good quality REM sleep optimises your chances of lucid dreaming.

Deep (slow-wave or delta) sleep is the restful and restorative sleep, necessary for healing the body and recovering from exhaustion. If you are deprived of deep sleep, your REM sleep will suffer as a consequence - because your body will try to regain lost deep sleep at the expense of the REM sleep. The sleep cycle tries to balance itself, prioritising which stages of sleep are necessary. 

The REM Rebound Effect is another example of this - if we lose REM sleep for a period of time, for example, inhibiting it due to regular cannabis use - we experience a catch-up or 'rebound' of REM sleep at some point (with cannabis, when the effect of the THC wears off due to metabolization). This reflux of lost REM sleep often leads to incredibly bizarre and vivid dreams - which is one benefit of temporarily abstaining from cannabis use! Some lucid dream supplements, such as 5HTP (5-Hydroxytryptophan) produce a REM Rebound Effect. 

One of the best ways to ensure you are not sleep deprived is to avoid artificial awakenings as far as possible - waking naturally when convenient is one way of making sure you are getting sufficient sleep (and experiencing that longest period of REM sleep, which happens right at the end of your natural sleep cycle). 

Even if this means going to bed earlier, it is something to consider when attempting to induce lucid dreaming. Beginner lucid dreamers should become accustomed to 'hacking' the sleep cycle and understanding it a little better, because there are some very effective lucid dream induction techniques and methods which work by manipulating sleep and wakefulness to optimise dreamtime. Essentially, the aim is to experience as much REM sleep as possible before you need to wake up - so getting your deep sleep out of the way will ensure you get through all the stages in your sleep cycle - which can vary. Some people require a lot less sleep than others - the standard or 'average' sleep cycle tends to be depicted as 8 hours, but some people find they have a 4 - 6 hour sleep cycle instead, but still get enough good quality sleep.

You can re-programme your Circadian rhythms using technological devices which simulate natural sunlight, or apps which claim to wake you from REM sleep, the time when you are most likely to recall a dream as it is fresh in your memory.

Failing to understand the sleep cycle
It is not necessary to have a scientific understanding of the sleep cycle in order to lucid dream, but having a basic understanding can really help. As indicated above, lucid dreaming - like all dreaming - takes place during the REM sleep stage of the sleep cycle. 

One of the common mistakes made by lucid dreamers is assuming that the best time to induce a lucid dream is at the start of the sleep cycle - at the point they go to bed, as they are falling asleep. It is essential that you use the time before you fall asleep for lucid dream induction work - just don't expect that your best lucid dreaming will take place at the start of the sleep cycle when we experience much more Non-REM sleep than towards the end. 

Lucid dream work which uses the sleep cycle as a means of optimising the chances of successful induction can be very effective - as well as choosing the right induction technique or method, for example a DILD (Dream-Initiated Lucid Dream) or a WILD (Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream). Understanding the sleep cycle can also assist when experimenting with lucid dreaming supplements (oneirogens), as certain supplements suppress REM sleep for a period of time, or need to be metabolised before you see an effect on your dreaming, which might require strategic timing. Research and a little trial and error are required here.

Ignoring the science of lucid dreaming
This is not intended to undermine beginner lucid dreamers who have an interest or investment in the spiritual side of lucid dreaming. We all have our own believes, faiths and worldviews, but it is important to recognise that having a belief-based perspective of dreaming should not preclude you from attempting to understand the scientific research into lucid dreaming. There are cynics and sceptics on both sides of course. I think it is essential to separate the valid, credible and verifiable science from pseudoscience or 'woo' - and with so much material available, it can sometimes be hard to distinguish between fact and fiction. The best approach embraces solid and reliable research, open-mindedness, critical-thinking and balance!

Lifestyle choices & substance use
Certain lifestyle choices or  use of substances - and this is a broad term to refer to foods, vitamins, supplements, medication, recreational drugs and alcohol - can have an effect on our sleep and dreaming. The only advice I would give here is to research the effects of any lifestyle choices/or substances on the sleep cycle and try to maintain your optimal level of health as far as possible, as this will be advantageous for lucid dreaming. 

Failing to stabilise & clarify your lucid dreams
The intense feelings of excitement we inevitably experience when we first find ourselves in a lucid dream typically lead to the lucid dream experience being cut short by a premature awakening. The euphoric rush of emotion still happens to me, even though I have experienced so many lucid dreams (some spontaneous/natural, others intentionally induced) in my lifetime. The trick is to remember to use lucid dream stabilisation techniques to prolong the lucid dream experience. 

The first thing to do is to remain calm - which is difficult when the adrenaline is pumping! Breath as deeply as possible and concentrate on yourself - don't try to interact with dream characters yet. You can perform a reality check to make sure you are dreaming - even if it seems entirely obvious to you! The next thing to do is stabilise and clarify my lucid dream. 

My preferred method for stabilising my lucid dreams is to rub my hands together (or rub my thighs) which telling myself 'I am dreaming'. You can also try spinning around on the spot, or touching an object within the dream world, such as the wall or a tree - this can be useful for grounding yourself in the lucid dream, especially if you feel you are about to wake up. If the dream remains unstable or blurry/hazy, clarifying the dream will help. I simply demand 'clarity!' and often, my vision clears and the dream becomes more 'concrete'. I then try to use my senses to interpret the dream scene I am in, which also helps the dream appear more clear and vivid. These techniques will certainly help to prolong your lucid dream experiences. 

If you fail to stabilise and clarify your lucid dreams, you will likely either wake up, or remain in a blurry, hazy, frustrating semi-lucid state, where you are not fully consciously aware, and have no control over the dream. Thereafter, you'll probably lapse back into a normal, non-lucid dream.

Failing to prolong your lucidity
Yes - it is possible to forget you are lucid dreaming! I have experienced a number of lucid dreams which have disappointingly lapsed back into normal, non-lucid dreams. This is because conscious awareness is still fragile, even after the lucid dream has been stabilised and clarified. Make sure that you regularly remind yourself that you are dreaming/experiencing a lucid dream and perform frequent reality checks. This will prolong your lucid dream experience. 

Expectations of lucid dream control
One of the biggest myths surrounding lucid dreaming is the idea that lucid dreaming equates to dream control. This is simply not true - dream control/manipulation is one of the most rewarding aspects of lucid dreaming, but not all lucid dreams involve dream control. In fact, lucid dream control can be very difficult to master, even for experienced lucid dreamers. 

There are different levels of lucidity on the lucid spectrum - lucid dream control occurs when we are fully-lucid. Even if we are fully-lucid, sometimes dream control evades us, and this can be for a number of reasons. The main one appears to be self-limiting beliefs or pre-conceptions. We experience waking reality bound by the laws of physics and certain expectations which allow us to adapt our behaviour based on predictable results. However different rules apply (or disapply) in the dream world, so we may have to disregard and abandon our deeply-imbedded, learned expectations. 

Learning dream visualisation techniques is very useful for improving skills which lead to better success in lucid dream control. 

Focusing on lucid dream sex
It is extremely common that the primary aim for beginner lucid dreamers is to instinctively focus on lucid dream sex. Obviously, in a lucid dream, we can pursue sexual intimacy with just about anyone or anything, break taboos or social norms and avoid the negative consequences we might face in waking reality. Further, the experience of sexual pleasure and orgasm in a lucid dream is often an overwhelming intense and euphoric physical experience, which combined with the lack of inhibition and freedom of the lucid dream, makes lucid dream sex a completely understandable 'lucid dream bucket list' goal. Lucid dream sex can really be a sensory overload and very different from our experience of real life waking sex.

However, lucid dream sex is not always a simple act to perform. Firstly, you need to stabilise and clarify your lucid dream at a time of high arousal - which is only further increased by the prospect of sexual abandon and fulfilment. You also have to summons a dream character and (hopefully) persuade them to consent to sex - and just like normal dream characters, lucid dream characters can behave erratically or unpredictably, even when we are trying to control/manipulate them. It is very common for desirable lucid dream sex partners to morph into unappealing, horrifying things or to reject you outright.

The same self-limiting beliefs, preconceptions - or even subconscious inhibitions which may not be apparent to us - can lead to the lucid dream experience having unplanned results. Even when the lucid dream sex experience seems to be working - the sensory overload can often lead to premature waking. 

The key here is not to focus too heavily on pursuing lucid dream sex. If you find you are having difficulty in achieving lucid dream sex, consider allowing things to develop more naturally within the lucid dream rather than trying to exert too much control and influence over events and dream characters. Allow your dream characters to be autonomous as possible - they are reflections of your subconscious, and their reactions and responses to you are essentially projections of you. To put it simply, if a lucid dream sex partner is resisting or rejecting you - it is really you who is resisting or rejecting the experience on a subconscious level. Perhaps your subconscious feels under pressure or coerced in some respect? Are you trying to use power to bypass your dream character's consent or bodily autonomy - their resistance is really your resistance to your behaviour here. 

Remember, if lucid dream sex does not seem to come naturally, just enjoy the lucid dream experience - a fruitless pursuit of intimacy will waste your lucidity. Just be confident and one day it will happen!

Dreaming of lucid dreaming
Dreaming of lucid dreaming is not the same as lucid dreaming. This happens to all lucid dreamers - they experience a normal, non-lucid dream in which lucid dreaming is a theme. This can be really frustrating, as we expect that any reference to dreaming or lucid dreaming within the world of the dream should be all it takes to perform a reality check and trigger lucidity. Recognising what is and is not a lucid dream can only truly occur once we have experienced a lucid dream and know what it feels like. The best advise here is to maintain your regular and consistent lucid dream induction work (especially use of reality checking and increasing conscious awareness), focus on the goal of lucid dreaming with confidence and optimism and avoid the above mistakes as far as possible!

Experiencing a Lucid Dream

If you have never experienced a lucid dream before, your first question is likely to be 'what does a lucid dream feel like?' Becoming consciously aware that you are dreaming is akin to entering a portal to a completely different world, where your ultimate fantasies can materialise and become 'true'. The laws of physics can break down or be manipulated in ways your waking mind may not be able to comprehend, but in a lucid dream, you experience it as if it is your actual reality. The lucid dream world is responsive to your thoughts, feelings, wishes and desires. I would liken it to a movie plotline where you are writing the script while simultaneously experiencing and observing it unfold before you. 

The clarity, stability and intensity of the lucid dream experience is variable and dependent on the dreamer maintaining peak levels of conscious awareness during the lucid dream experience. 

Our waking reality is shaped by our sensory interpretation of our environment, receiving stimulus via sight, sound, touch, smell and taste which our brain processes, to put it very simply. Our dreams 'sythentise' or artificially create these sensory experiences, using our memories and imaginations as their source material. 

I will give you one dream example of my own to illustrate an oddity here. Dreamers tend to achieve successful flight in a dream by moving their arms in a swimming motion (and often the front crawl/butterfly movement) rather than flapping their extended arms, like a bird would. This is because humans have never experienced the true feeling of achieving organic flight (using only their own body) in reality. Very few humans have experienced the sensation of being weightless, or suspended above solid ground with no support to hold them up other than their own body, as would be the case if in mid-air. The most similar physical sensation a human is likely to have in their memory is being in water - and keeping afloat by swimming. Therefore, our dream self is able to use that real life memory of a similar or analogous physical sensation to 'create' that 'reality' in the dream world. 

Sometimes the synthesised physical sensations of the lucid dream world are especially intense, pleasurable and stimulating. Sensations may be far more heightened than the dreamer experiences them in reality. This is why some people liken lucid dreaming to a psychedelic drug trip - but unlike recreational substances, lucid dreaming presents absolutely no physical risk and is much safer for your mental health and wellbeing! 

Many lucid dreamers (or 'oneironauts' to use the proper term) pursue lucid dream scenarios in which they can indulge and satisfy their primal instincts and urges, due to the intensified, yet often highly realistic physical sensations of the lucid dream. 

One of the most common physical sensations of a lucid dream is heightened colour - everything might appear more vivid. I have also noticed the malleable nature of vision in a lucid dream - people (dream characters) and objects/environment appear solid and realistic when looking at them directly, but can also shift and transform into other things - sometimes because I consciously will them to (dream control) and sometimes because the dream (i.e. my subconscious) is itself creating and recreating the fabric of the dream around me. 

When first entering or waking up from a lucid dream, my vision goes blurry or darkened. Sometimes my field of vision shrinks from full-screen to a letter-box, framed in black. If I have just entered the lucid dream and I am finding it hard to focus my vision and stabilise the lucid dream so that I can enjoy it, I order myself to have clarity - and this does improve the clarity of my vision and other physical sensory experiences so that I can begin a lucid adventure.

The taste of food in lucid dreams is often an incredibly heightened experience - with the added bonus of having no effect on our nutrition or health. When eating a familiar food in a lucid dream, the flavour and sensation is maximised based on our memory of what that food tastes like in reality. If trying a new food for the first time in the lucid dream, the taste of that food is shaped by our waking expectations of what that food might taste like. As your 'dream taste buds' won't become accustomed to the flavour of the food in a lucid dream, each bite or swallow will be just like your very first experience. 

When I hear the voices of familiar real life people - or real life fictional characters - in a lucid dream, their voices are typically extremely close to my waking knowledge of how they sound - even down to slight intonation and vocal patterns.

I use the physical sensation of touch in a lucid dream to stabilise it. It is essential for lucid dreamers to learn lucid dream stabilisation techniques as soon as they are beginning to induce lucid dreams. Lucid dreams are often very precarious and transient experiences - they are difficult to maintain (often due to increased arousal, which wakes you up) and short in terms of time spend lucid. The REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage in the sleep cycle is when all dreams take place - this stage of sleep is characterised by increased brain activity and is very close to wakefulness. 

A lucid dream is even closer to the waking state, as we have even more increase in brain activity - including activation of some parts of the brain which are not routinely active in normal, non-lucid dreams. Stabilisation techniques help you calm down and lower your arousal so that you can maintain the lucid state and prolong it. One of the best stabilisation techniques relies on the physical sensation of touch. When lucid, I often experience some vague, shadowy sense of what is happening in my real life reality - typically, this will be the feeling of the weight of my real life duvet on my body, sometimes over part of my face. This is because the lucid dream is on the borderlines of sleep and wakefulness and real life sensory input is competing with that synthesised in the dream world.

To stabilise the lucid dream, and distract myself from the real world stimulus which is penetrating my dream and threatening to wake me up, I either rub my hands together, or rub my hands on my thighs. Another highly effective technique is to touch something in the lucid dream environment, such as a wall or a tree. 

Another thing which can lead to premature waking from a lucid dream is heightened arousal - in other words, too much excitement at the realisation (conscious awareness) you are experiencing a lucid dream. Remaining calm in addition to stabilising the dream using other techniques as described above can help you to combat premature waking from a lucid dream.

You can feel pain or unpleasant physical sensations in a lucid dream. In a normal, non-lucid dream, your subconscious is responsible for controlling all of the physical sensations of the dream. In a lucid dream, even if you haven't mastered dream recall, your conscious mind begins to intervene, tweaking the dream and your experience of it. 

Unless you have chosen to actively seek out pain or unpleasant physical sensations, any pain in a lucid dream is likely to be the product of your subconscious. You might have a strong expectation or preconception that pain will result from a certain scenario, and therefore your dream reflects this expectation by giving you the physical sensation of pain. You will have established neural pathways for pain, based on real life experiences. So dreams can replicate the physical sensation of pain in highly realistic ways. In a lucid dream you can command or will yourself to stop feeling the pain, and focus your attention on something else, which is often effective. In the lucid dream state, while your physical experience of pain may be extremely uncomfortable, it is not accompanied by the psychological fear that you have sustained some form of tangible physical damage or harm - the experience of pain is consequence-free. 

I see a lucid dream as an opportunity to have a conversation with my subconscious mind. You can ask the lucid dream to show you something - such as 'show me what I want most in life' or 'show me my deepest fear' etc - whatever the lucid dream shows you could be a 'truth' which your real life waking mind has not been able to communicate to you as clearly as your subconscious can in the lucid dream state. 

Another way I attempt to communicate with my subconscious in a lucid dream is via dream characters. When I meet dream characters in lucid dreams, depending on the scenario, I may attempt to exert lucid dream control over the dream character, but at other times I allow them to have full autonomy. Having a conversation with an 'autonomous' dream character is essentially a conversation with your subconscious, as the dream character is a projection of your subconscious, as is the very fabric of the dream itself. All dreams are reflections or projections of our subconscious, but if we are not lucid, we are only aware of what our subconscious might have been trying to tell us after we wake up and analyse/interpret our dream. This becomes difficult when we do not necessarily have perfect dream recall. 

The beauty of a lucid dream is the fact that your conscious brain is 'awake' or active and therefore you can not only remember your lucid dream almost as well as any waking life experience (at least this is my experience of lucid dreaming), but you have access to at least some of your logical, fact-checking mental abilities, so you can engage with and question what is happening in the lucid dream and manipulate events to suit your own agenda, which is not possible in a normal, non-lucid dream.

Due to the fluidity of the lucid dream experience, our perception of the space we inhabit is not grounded in the same way it is in waking reality. In a lucid dream our location awareness is limited to whatever we are focusing on at that particular moment. You are so absorbed in your immediate space and time that you almost forget the wider world which exists beyond it. If I become lucid in my bedroom, I am only aware of my direct vicinity (and what lies just beyond it) if I am specifically focused on that. If my focus shifts, purposefully or otherwise, my location is not solid or reliable - and therefore it can shift and transform. 

Once you have mastered lucid dream control, you can use the malleable nature of the lucid dream world to your advantage - you can command/will your lucid dream environment to change using lucid dream visualisation techniques, or you can use doors to portals into new lucid dream locations.

Memory in dreams works differently to memory in waking reality, because certain parts of the brain are inactive, even in a lucid dream. In normal, non-lucid dreams it is common to have little to no access to your real life waking memories - you may even experience false memories which link to the particular dream scenario you are experiencing. Additionally, it is often very difficult for the memory of the dream itself to consolidate in the short-term memory, due to the fact that our brains do not need to remember our dreams - the dream process itself is psychologically significant, but upon waking, there is no necessity for us to remember exactly what happened in our subconscious minds while asleep - the dreamwork has already done it's 'magic', so to speak. The fact dream memories are so flimsy and transient is why it is essential to record dreams immediately upon waking before the dream memories fade and slip away forever.

In a lucid dream, memory functions are slightly improved - at least in my experience, my memory of the dream itself is pretty accurate and clear, and I tend to have decent access to my real life waking memories while in the lucid dream. However, I only tend to have memories of things I am actively focusing on or thinking about in the dream - unless I am specifically attempting to access a particular waking memory, it is simply absence or out of reach. This may vary for other dreamers. One way to improve memory in the lucid dream state is to set yourself a lucid dream intention - while awake set yourself a goal for your lucid dream and then when you find yourself in that lucid dream state, recall your set lucid dream intention and attempt to will it into existence. For example, you might set a lucid dream intention to travel to a specific location, meet a specific dream character or ask your subconscious a specific question. Some people refer to these lucid dream intentions as 'lucid dream goals'. Managing to achieve a lucid dream goal is immensely rewarding and a sign that your lucid dreaming skills are improving. 

Dream control is a cognitive i.e. a mental process which requires intention and will-power to achieve. Many beginner lucid dreamers conflate lucidity with dream control, but the 2 things are not synonymous. A lucid dream without any dream control at all is still a lucid dream. Sometimes letting go of the desire to actively manipulate a dream and letting your subconscious desires shape the lucid dream narrative can be very illuminating and insightful, as well as exciting. There are many techniques which can help you improve dream control and manipulation. The only limits to what you can achieve in a lucid dream are your preconceptions, expectations and powers of imagination. 

Once you are able to induce lucid dreams (or if you naturally, spontaneously experience them, but want to explore dreamwork further), you can develop a lucid dream skill set which will intensify, enhance and enrich your lucid dream experiences. This lucid dream skill set includes:

• Experience a fully lucid dream
• Improve the clarity and stability of a lucid dream
• Prolong the lucid dream
• Accurately control physical movements within a lucid dream
• Learn lucid dream visualisation techniques
• Learn to change the lucid dream location/environment and travel to a desired place/time
• Meaningfully interact with lucid dream characters
• Enter a dialogue with your subconscious from within a lucid dream

If you are new to lucid dream induction or dreamwork, there are some indicators as to whether you might be particularly receptive or predisposed to lucid dreaming. That said, anyone can learn how to induce lucid dreams, it just takes more time and effort for some people. If any of the following apply to you, you might want to consider learning how to induce lucid dreams and improve your lucid dream skill set:

• You experience vivid and intense daydreams - are you able to visually create a fantasy scenario in a day dream? This skill makes it easier to induce lucid dreams using both the DILD (Dream-Initiated Lucid Dream) or WILD (Wake-Initiated Lucid Dream) induction techniques
• You have strong dream recall - do you recall a dream most nights? Dream recall is essential for all dreamwork
• You wake up naturally (without an alarm) often - waking up naturally from REM sleep (the longest, most fruitful stage of REM sleep occurs right at the end of the sleep cycle, just before you would naturally wake up) aids dream recall - waking up from an alarm is intrusive and interrupts your dreaming, causing you to potentially lose your dream memories
• You experience vivid and intense dreams - this is the perfect set up for progressing onto lucid dream induction. Vivid and intense dreams are a signal that you are getting sufficient, good quality REM sleep and have good dream recall/memory - both essential for lucid dream induction!
• You have intentionally woken yourself up from a nightmare or night terror in the past - this is a sign that you possessed clarity of thought in the dream state at a time when you needed to exert some control or manipulation over your dream
• You have previously experienced lucid dreams - not only are you more likely to be able to identify the lucid dream state (or semi-lucid state), but you will already have a firm belief in the possibility of lucid dreaming. Remember preconceptions and expectations are often what hold us back, so knowing you have experienced a lucid dream in the past can increase your confidence that it is possible again in the future
• You experience false awakenings, out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and/or sleep paralysis - these provide excellent gateways into a lucid dream and therefore are perfect for lucid dreamers to harness and use to their advantage in lucid dream induction
• You practice meditation or mindfulness - meditation aims to increase conscious self-awareness which is also key to lucid dreaming. Many aspects of lucid dream induction require increasing conscious self-awareness, reflection, visualisation and critical thinking. Some lucid dream induction techniques incorporate methods which are based around meditation
• You have a strong desire to lucid dream - our dreams are created from not only our subconscious, but also our real life waking experiences, thoughts, emotions and memories. Consolidating or cementing a desire or intention to experience a lucid dream while awake can enable this desire or intention to penetrate or infiltrate our dreams, so it is beneficial to regularly and actively remind yourself of your desire to lucid dream
• You are enthusiastic about dreaming - the most interest you have in dreaming and lucid dreaming, and the more attention you pay to your dreams in your waking reality, the more likely you are to be successful in inducing a lucid dream. This is why keeping a dream journal and discussing your dreams regularly are key to lucid dreaming success
• You play first-person video games - in a video game you are immersed in a synthesised, simulated reality. Research has shown that regular video game players experience superior spatial awareness and control in lucid dreams, mirroring the cognitive skills they use when gaming

The Dreamhacker Series

I have relaunched The Dreamhacker Series - a beginner level, back to basics, foundational series of tutorials which aim to teach you all aspects of dreamwork, including dream recall, dream incubation, lucid dream induction, dream control and much much more! You can find the Dreamhacker Series of videos on the Tallulah La Ghash Youtube channel (linked below) - I have also posted my first video here on this Blog post for ease of access - please do watch it, like it and share it, as well as subscribing to my channel and turning notifications on. Also note that I will be doing more live broadcasts where you can come and chat to me in real time. I am planning to do regular 'Tallulah's Dream Palace' broadcasts where we can discuss dreaming and lucid dreaming and I can give you live tips, techniques, help, advice and guidance on how you can enrich and improve your own dream experiences. Remember, you can ask me anything - leave me a question (or comment/suggestion/feedback) in the comments sections of my Youtube videos or on social media (linked below).

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

Subscribe to the Tallulah La Ghash Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/LaGhash
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Dream 875 (FALSE AWAKENING/LUCID DREAM)

'Lightsaber Fail'

Date: September 2017

Time: Unknown

Type of dream: Lucid False Awakening (Fully Lucid with Moderate Dream Control & Moderate Dream Stability)
Dream recall: Strong recall 

False Awakening - My Bedroom

I woke up in my bed. I seemed to sit up instantly - like something startled me. At first I thought I was really awake, but then something alerted me to the fact I was in a false awakening. I am not sure what it was - I did not have sleep paralysis. I think that everything in my room looked as it normally should - nothing out of place or odd. I tried too get out of my bed and I found that I could not get my legs out from under the covers very easily. It seemed to take me ages to get my feet onto the floor. I walked out of my room. 

Instead of walking through from my room into the lounge/kitchen area of my flat, I walked into a different room, which does not exist in reality. It looked like a large empty room and my first thought was that I was being watched. It was so dark in the room that I could barely see anything. I started worrying about what nightmarish dream character I might see. I was fully lucid, but did not feel particularly in control. For some reason, my brain kept telling me that Pennywise the Clown from IT (2017) was going to surprise me. I decided that I needed a weapon - I used dream control techniques to close my eyes and focus on/visualise having a lightsaber. I wanted to have a Sith lightsaber (red for those not familair with Star Wars lore). I was hoping to have Darth Vader's lightsaber. Instead I got Luke Skywalker's green one. I was not happy about this. The lightsaber was already activated when it appeared in my hand. 

I could now see that there were a number of strange figures/objects in the room. They looked to be 3/4 of my own height and human-shaped, but covered with white sheets (like a bad ghost fancy-dress costume). I was not sure if these were actual living beings or statues. I found myself walking through them. The room felt like a museum at this point. I started trying to attack the white-sheeted figures with the lightsaber, but nothing happened. I could not get it to even cut through the sheets. This was frustrating. 

Someone came in the room and stood in the doorway. I approached the doorway, with the lightsaber held in front of me. I could see that the person in the room was a tall man, but I could not look up to see his face for some reason. I felt scared. I swung the lightsaber at him - it should have made contact, but it seemed to just move through thin air, doing nothing. 

I woke up. 

Dream 861 (FALSE AWAKENING/LUCID DREAM/SEX DREAM)

'Ewan McGregor, My Lucid Lover & Bad Teacher'

Date: 9 August 2017

Time: 22:30 - 05:00

Type of dream: Lucid False Awakening (Fully Lucid with Moderate Dream Control & Moderate Dream Stability)
Dream recall: Strong recall 

False Awakening - My Bedroom
I woke up in my bed, facing the wall, so my back was towards the empty space in the room. I could feel something poking me in my back and felt scared, but strangely accepted this - at this point I was not lucid nor aware this was a false awakening. I just seemed to think: 'Not this again!' Then, suddenly, it was as if my logical reasoning switched on, because I questioned what could be poking my back when I was alone in my house and did not ever sleep with anyone present in the room. I realised this must be a false awakening and I was in a dream state. I found that I did not have sleep paralysis and could move freely, so I sat up suddenly, wondering what I would see in my room. I reached out my hand, in the dark, seeing that my room did look as I would expect it to in real life, other than my duvet was white, not purple. I wished for a knife to come into my hand, so I could be protected (given most of my false awakenings lead to nightmarish happenings, even when I am lucid). A long kitchen knife appeared in my outstretched hand. 

I felt that there was something in the room, just behind the curtain - the window is above the pillows on my bed. I started shouting: 'Come out!' because I just wanted it to reveal itself as soon as possible so that the dream could move forward, as the tension and apprehension was unpleasant. Nothing happened. I decided to change the dream and make it more interesting, so I started shouting: 'Ewan!' hoping to bring Ewan McGregor into my dream.

Amazingly, after I shouted out Ewan's name a few times, I saw him standing against what, in real life, would be my fitted wardrobe, but in the dream version was a plain white wall. Ewan looked as he does while playing Mark Renton in Trainspotting (1996), so very young and skinny. He had his hands out on either side, like a crucifixion. He was wearing a navy T-shirt and jeans. I could see a strip of flesh where his T-shirt was riding up on his waist. He looked like he had been out in the rain, or very sweaty. This image of him was very clear to me, like I saw it on a photograph and looked at it for a long time. It was dark in my room, as it would be in real life, but it was just light enough to see colours. 

I laid back on my bed and opened my legs wide - I was naked (in real life I was wearing shorts and a cropped top). Ewan approached me and - without me seeing/waiting for him to undress, he was naked and we started having sex in the missionary position (click here and here for articles on Lucid Dream Sex; and here for an article on Wet Dreams). 

This was one of the best lucid dream experiences, as I love Ewan and the sex was mind-blowing, I could feel the build up to an orgasm (so, leading to a wet dream), but I lapsed from lucidity and went into a normal non-lucid dream before I could reach the climactic finale of the sex with Ewan. This was obviously disappointing to me when I woke up and thought about this subsequently. 

Scene 1: A School - Day
I was in a school - not one from real life. It seemed to be a high school. AKB - a girl I went to school with was present. There was a school dinner - with baked beans and potatoes and something else on the plate. We were sitting at desks - myself, AKB and other students who may or may not have been people I knew from real life. I was then aware that Ewan McGregor was my teacher. I was in love with him - and he was Ewan McGregor the actor, not just him as a regular teacher, so I felt overwhelmed to be in his class. I cannot recall what Ewan was wearing at this stage in the dream, but I do not think he was wearing the costume I saw him in later. There was an assignment and he was coming round to look at our exercise books to make sure we were doing the work correctly. He looked at the work of a male dream character and seemed to be impressed. The phrase 'common den' was on someone's work - and Ewan read this phrase out. In my waking mind, it may be 'come on then', but my perception was that it was 'common den' as I started thinking about a small room. 

When Ewan came to look at my work, I stood up from my desk. I then realised that the room was open-plan and had no walls - as I could see the corridor behind us. Ewan was not impressed with my work, and furthermore, he seemed annoyed at me and very aloof and rude. I realised that he was able to see - from my writing in the exercise book (which I could not specifically read - and was written in pencil) - that I was in love with him. This seemed to make him act more rudely towards me, and I got the idea that he was trying to exploit me in some way. 

I followed Ewan out into the corridor. He was now dressed as Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast and he started prancing down was looked like a typical school corridor, with lockers and classroom doors on one side, and windows down the other. Groups of students - mainly male - were praising Ewan as he pranced by. He seemed very smug and patronising and everyone seemed to be in thrall of his celebrity status and were telling him what a great teacher he was. I did not think he was a great teacher at all - I thought he was too over-confident and arrogant and did not care for his students at all. I kept trying to stop Ewan so that I could have a rational discussion with him about why his teaching was bad and why I felt angry at his behaviour towards me, but he just kept indicating that we should walk (well, he was prancing, I was walking backwards at one point, facing him, while trying to get his attention) so that we could reach whatever location we were heading towards. This part of the dream was very frustrating. 

Scene 2: A Suburban Area - Dusk
I was aware that I was in a relationship with PS, my ex-boyfriend, who I had had some form of argument with. I was outside a house on a housing estate, which is not one I know from real life. In the dream, PS lived in a semi-detached brick house, which was in a typical suburban street with cars parked on the side of the road. PS was accusing me of having an affair with his friend, LRB, who in the dream had snitched on PS for some criminal activity - maybe it was possession of cannabis? It wasn't clear. I was telling PS that I had not cheated on him with LRB, but he was not willing to listen. LRB turned up in a car - in the dream he had ginger-brown hair, not black hair. He tried to reason with PS, telling him that he had not snitched and I had not cheated, but PS would not listen. The next thing I recall, I was in a public toilet with LRB. It turned out that now we were romantically or sexually involved with each other - we were looking at something in a bag on the floor of the toilet. 

I was then at the seaside with PS, standing on a pier. I was trying to explain events to him and make up with him, as it was him I wanted to be with. However, he was not interested. I tried to hug him and was rejected, which left me feeling very sad. 

Scene 3: A Home - Day
I was then looking at a male dream character, who in the dream was a Youtuber. I am not sure if I was there in person or watching him on a screen, as I was not part of the action, I was a passive observer. The male was young (20s or early 30s) and white, with brown hair. He was quite thin and dressed very casually - I knew he was 'working-class'. He was sitting in an armchair in a normal lounge, slouched and drinking a can of lager. He seemed to be very annoyed and was talking - as if recording a video for Youtube, as it was a ranting monologue, not a conversation. He described going into 'the city' and buying some very cheap jeans - a fact which he was pleased about at first. Then he started talking about a baby daughter who had been treated negligently by a doctor with 'dirty hands' which had led to something going wrong. It wasn't clear what it was. 

Then my attention was drawn to a TV screen, which was playing an episode of a chat show or a morning TV show, which was revealing the incident which happened to the Youtuber's daughter - it was the episode where the child had been treated by the doctor. I just watched this.

The TV show had a normal set - with sofas. There was a male TV doctor - a white middle-aged man, who was wearing a suit. There was a young blonde woman, who was the partner of the Youtuber, and the mother of his child. The child was about 2 years old - maybe younger. She had blonde hair too - but baby hair, thin and wispy. The mother was holding a bottle of water. The doctor picked up the child and held her, with her back to the camera. He asked the mother to pour the water over the child's head, which she did, wetting her hair. This revealed a huge golf-ball sized lump on the back of the child's head. The doctor started talking about this medical condition in a very worried way. 

Scene 4: The Forest Area near my Home, Norwich - Day
I was walking down the footpath which is between a field with horses and the forest. I was walking towards my home. In the footpath, there was a line of dead horses - they were in the field adjacent, but their heads were sticking through the fence into the footpath. I saw the owner of the horses, who in the dream I perceived to be 'the farmer'. I blamed him for the death of his horses. He seemed to be poking at their heads with some kind of garden tool. I was angry with him. I saw a small animal - it was a 'donkey' in the dream, but it was actually a donkey's head with a lamb's body. It was the size of a kitten. I really wanted this animal as it was so cute. I picked it up and started walking over the heads of the dead horses, towards the farmer, wondering if he would try and stop me from taking the miniature donkey-lamb (as I assumed it belonged to him). I thought that if he tried to stop me, I would object on the basis that he had killed his own horses and was not good at caring for animals. I reached the farmer, at the bottom of the footpath. He did not try and take the donkey-lamb from me, but we did have a conversation, which was not friendly and involved me accusing him of killing the horses and him making excuses for it. I looked beyond him, towards the grassy field on my university campus (from the position I was in I would not quite be able to see this part of the campus at this location/angle). I could see a bunch of sheep and a huge animal which was the size of a brontosaurus and appeared to be a cross between a sheep and a giraffe, but was covered in pale grey fluffy fur. I asked the farmer how he would 'shear the sheep' and wondered if he would shave the wool from the miniature donkey-lamb (which I did not want him to do). The donkey-lamb had weird teeth - they were large, square and very blunt, all in a perfectly aligned row. Even though the teeth were completely blunt, I was scared of the animal biting me. I decided to put the donkey-lamb in my handbag as I walked over to some stables. These stables were where the Broads/lake would be on campus in real life. They were made of red brick, and had hay/straw on the floor. There was an open space to enter (no doors), with a number of concrete steps up to the entrance. The animals - full-sized sheep and donkeys - were in pens which had hip-high wooden fencing keeping them in. I was wondering if I should leave the donkey-lamb here. It then jumped out of my bag and stopped on the steps at the entrance. I thought I had lost it for good, but I was able to approach it and catch it again. I put it back in my bag, worried that it would bite me. This was a constant worry. I then remembered that I had prawn sandwiches in my handbag and thought that the donkey-lamb might pee on them and ruin them. I wanted to take the prawn sandwiches out of the bag, but I was scared in case the donkey-lamb bit me. Eventually, I worked up the courage to put my hand in my bag and found that the donkey-lamb had eaten the prawn sandwiches and there was just empty cardboard packaging left in my bag. I was not angry about the sandwiches being eaten, but I was surprised that the donkey-lamb had eaten them. I walked off. 

I cannot recall anything else about this dream. 

Extra Information: 
None of note

Recurrent Dream Themes: 

• Ewan McGregor as a dream character
• School/learning institution
• Prawns

Dreamsigns: 

• The Lucid False Awakening
• I was back at school - Ewan McGregor was my teacher
• I was in a relationship with my ex-boyfriend and had cheated on him with his friend, LRB 
• The Youtuber who appeared on a TV show - the way this part of the dream took place, it was clearly an event which could only happen in a dream
• The dead horses
• The donkey-lamb and the gigantic sheep-giraffe
• The stables which were on my university campus, where the Broads/lake should be
• I had eaten prawns a few days before this dream

Day Residue: 

• Ewan McGregor is someone I think about every day. The influences on this dream were from images/movies he has appeared in, which I would have been exposed to in my waking day - Mark Renton in Trainspotting (1996); Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast (2017); Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. In a conversation with DL I had mentioned that Ewan had done more theatrical roles as well and we discussed his acting career. The Christ-like pose I saw him in may have reflected the fact that one of my favourite internet memes (see below) is based on the fact so many people mistake him as a depicted of Jesus when he is dressed as Obi-Wan Kenobi. He has actually played Jesus in a movie I have never watched - Last Days in the Dessert (2015). I think the reference to him being a bad teacher was a post I read online about Obi-Wan being a terrible Jedi Master for his padawan, Anakin Skywalker. I discussed this theory with DL also
• AKB works in the theatre industry
• I had been discussing Jeremy Kyle and The Jeremy Kyle Show
• I had been walking in the forest in the area in Scene 4 and seen the horses. During one conversation with DL I said: 'It would be weird to see one of the horses laying dead in the field'
• I had been watching a Youtube video by Bunny Meyer (Grav3yardgirl) where she refers to her 'pony teeth' and tries out a pair of false teeth facades, which did not fit her mouth. I love the fact that Bunny embraces her own 'imperfect' teeth, as I have always been paranoid about my own

Waking Reactions: 
This dream was amazing - firstly because it was partly a lucid sex dream involving Ewan McGregor, and secondly because the non-lucid part was so bizarre and complex and involved many elements of Day Residue. I was disappointed with the events of Scene 1 (because Ewan was not a pleasant character) and Scene 2 (as it was not a positive scene in any way), but overall, I found the dream experience to be fascinating and entertaining to recall.