I did the Wake/Back-to-Bed (WBTB) entry technique again. My ability to be lucid is better in this last segment of sleep when I can interrupt my sleep by being alert for a moment. As usual, getting up briefly after the first 6 hours was purely a result of my need to pee.

Lucid Dream

I’m watching a couple familiar politicians talking to each other. They’re seated on a couch and chair in a hotel lobby. 

In a sense I feel like I’m watching a video. That’s how I normally see these people. Oddly enough, I can change the camera placement instantly by changing where I am, as if I’m the camera. I think about how strange it is.

I look down and see my shoes. It takes this long for me to realize the obvious fact of what’s going on: I’m of course actually there, not watching a video. 

That means I’m in a dream. I pull myself together.

Right now my task is to stabilize the dream environment in the same way I calm my mind, as first described in the end notes of my New Year’s Day experience.

With these two people here I’m going to feel distracted. I walk outside into a square with people walking in every direction. This will do. With my hands at my sides, I breathe out, looking down, outstretching my fingers slightly, spreading my calmness into the ground and throughout the area around me.

The ground is all concrete or stone. A street continues to my left, and on the right side of that street is a restaurant. A pile of round-topped mountains rise high in the distance. There are buildings in front of and to the right of me.

I look back to my left, and the restaurant now has a chain link fence blocking the outside seating area. Oops. Things are changing. I have more work to do.

I look down and breathe out again, relaxing and reinforcing the intention of spreading my calmness and stability. 

Again I look over, and the restaurant has changed again. Small changes, I’m not sure what exactly, but it isn’t staying the same.

At that point I feel myself fading out…

Re-Entry

I wake up, turn around, and go back into the dream.

This time I’m inside an office. A woman is leading me into an office room where there is a meeting taking place at a large table, but also workout equipment on the side.

A woman by the wall is jabbering something at me. Without missing a beat I instinctively point my hand at her and freeze her as I walk past. The stasis won’t last long, but long enough to keep her from distracting me for a moment.

I need to stabilize this environment. But I feel myself fading already. I feel like some intense exercise with heavy breathing might help me with this. I start to go over and hop on the treadmill, but I spot a yoga mat. Curious, I sit down and do a forward bend, way farther than I normally can, and don’t even feel the stretch. Yep, that’s what I expected. 

I get up and go to the treadmill. I fade out.

Thoughts

Maybe this is a message that more intense physical exercise will help with my energy to keep the experience going longer, or perhaps with something else. I’ve been lifting weights and doing yoga, but I might need to do some running again. I don’t know.