Murky Memories, a Lucid Flight, by Jennifer
For the most recent Oneironauticum, I took 4g of Melatonin, 200 mg of B-6 and 470 mg of Valerian. As was the common experience, my memories of movements through dream realms were uncharacteristically vague, though I woke sure that I’d dreamed epically and constantly all night. I had the sense of having spent much more of the night in dream space than usual, and less in deep sleep. Throughout the night, I often rose to the surface of consciousness, surfing that border just between asleep and awake. This happens often, but usually mostly in the morning during the few hours before I fully wake up.
Most of the dream snippets I remembered involved some sort of substance–sometimes a magic brew, though I think sometimes the form it took was unclear–that lots of people wanted. For some reason, it was important to share this substance. A sort of mystical bond or experience would result from group ingestion.
Several times during the night, I felt lucidity coming on. I’m usually alerted to this onset by a tingling sensation, excitement rising in my dream mind as I begin to recognize the appearance of the subject writing these words right now. Each time, however, the arrival of this me brought along too much waking consciousness (not surprising, really) and I came out of the dream.
Soon after sunrise, however (after one of my many brief wakings), I became fully lucid. I did the first thing that most people do: fly up into the air. I soared high above a football game, enjoying the sensation of swooping and banking. I could see the players on the field far below, and knew people must be amazed to see me flying through the air. Then the scene below me began to shift and I knew I was losing lucidity. I attempted to stay lucid by concentrating on the concretenss of my surroundings, a trick I learned from Stephen LaBerge during one of the workshops I’ve taken with him. It sort of worked, but then I looked down at what had become the shore of a vast lake beneath me and saw two badgers swimming to shore supporting a man and a woman who’d almost drowned in the water. (Yes, I know that badgers are not aquatic.) I knew I had to go help them and flew down. As I extended my hand to the badger’s paw to help it out of the water, the lucidity fled though the dream continued.
Thank you for sharing!
I also did the retreat with Stephen.
Remember the spinning method? Where you practice during the day to be ready at night to feel the sensation of spinning.. this will “save” a fading lucid moment and very often spawn up a new more stable dream scene.
Is the B6 the vitamin for dream recall? I’ve been thinking I should take some form of supplement to help with my recall.