Penetrate the evening while the city sleeps to hide

Last night I had a lucid dream. They are rare, few people experience them. I've had at least a couple - I'm lucky - but nothing like the one I had last night.

The dream:

I am at home, though it's not the house I live in now. It's where an old friend grew up, but he is not present. I am with a few friends and my roommates. Two of the people in attendance I'm annoyed with, which is why, aside from the obvious reasons, the distraction of two of my female friends suddenly deciding to take a shower together after expressing rather loudly how much they enjoy threesomes, is welcome.

I map out in my head the chances of me getting involved. I decide they're pretty good and knock on the bathroom door, saying I need to brush my teeth. They welcome me in. Good sign. I brush my teeth and listen to them kiss and giggle in the shower stall behind me. I make my move; they don't mind. I disrobe and join them.

Despite the ease at which I immersed myself into this scene, I feel slightly uncomfortable. Both of the women have boyfriends. Whatever moral dilemma I muster up is quickly overshadowed by the attention I'm getting from K (I'm not naming names ). In mid-grope, the door opened and C walks in. He's one of the scoundrels I'm annoyed with. Of course it has to be him! He steps out and closes the door, but it's too late: he knows whats going on and will probably tell anyone who'll listen. I already suspect him of spreading disinformation about me - it's why he's not in my good graces presently - and am pissed at my carelessness. Too late. He knows.

Things get murky here. I discover there are several goons, I sense they're in the mafia, who are displeased with me, possibly over what just happened in the bathroom, but I'm not sure. They are entering the house. I sneak out the back door.

It's getting dark. I skulk around the side of the house and listen for signs of pursuit. A door opens, there is shouting. They are after me. I run - no, I bound - into the woods. I am one with everything. I know these woods. I am so confident they won't catch me, I stop about fifty feet in and peak behind a tree trunk to see how much ground I've gained. I see my pursuers, thugs all, lit by the moon and running in my direction. They are disorganized and confused, though, and will be easy enough to outdistance. Still, I know they will not stop until they catch me. And there are more of them elsewhere. Like a wolf, I tear into the woods. Deeper, and deeper still.

I arrive at the edge of a massive clearing. The moon is so bright it's almost like day time. I encounter someone I know working on some machinery in a rickety barn. I tell him my predicament. He tells me we need to go deeper in. I know exactly what he means.

We walk behind the barn and there the land opens up, a massive plain of lush green, tinted silver under the moon. What looks to be a large kite with an engine takes off near the barn. My friend's apprentice is piloting it. As we watch the craft bob and weave above us, my friend says "You know, we could get you out of here in that".

"No", I say. "I need to go deeper, like you said." He nods in agreement. He breaks out something big.....actually, I don't really know what he does. All I know is that by some method, he is able to make it so we can travel this great plain before us, which, now that I really get a good look at, reminds me of one of Van Gogh's landscapes. Everything is lush, vivid. I'm itching to be immersed.

Whatever my friend does takes effect. And I wake up. In the dream, I wake up. I cannot believe I have woken up in this dream! Suddenly everything is clearer. I feel the breeze on my arms, my thoughts are ordered. I laugh in disbelief. "Am I really awake?", I ask my friend. "You most certainly are", he replies.

How is this possible?

It's like walking into a movie. I have forgotten about my pursuers, but I know they are constructs of my imagination and cannot harm me. What matters is that I'm fully conscious that I'm dreaming. I am awake within a dream. Everything is beautiful beyond expression. I don't want to leave.

As we wraiths stalk the night, I keep thinking how incredible it is I haven't woken up yet or that the dream, as dreams are like to do, hasn't shifted focus. I intuit that I'm its architect and that being lucid within it enables me to hold it in focus for as long as I want.

We're back at the house. Suddenly. A friend approaches who is in cahoots with my pursuers. "What are you doing back here?" he asks. It's a challenge, but there's a note of concern. He is my friend after all. I tell him not to worry. We go inside.

I am supremely confident that everything is going to be alright because, again, I am aware that I'm creating my experience. We join several others at a long banquet table. A bearded man is speaking at the other end of the table. He is telling the group something, a parable, I think. He speaks about levitation and looks at my friend and me pointedly. "I think he expects us to levitate", my friend says.

For a brief instant, I believe it's unachievable, but then I realize I'm dreaming and that, because I'm calling the shots, I can make it happen. I will my friend and me upward and we rise, chairs and all, to the ceiling as easily and steadily as if we were standing up.

Then my alarm goes off. I wake up a second and final time.

My next post will offer commentary on the dream. If you've made it this far, you may want to read it. If you abandoned ship at the first mention of the word dream, then you will be sure to skip over that post.