Lucid Vision

Have you perchance heard of a technique called lucid dreaming?
Many years ago it was one of a numner of techniques I used to try and understand my own mind. I used it for a few months until a sleep medication made it impossible to continue successfully. It more or less allows you control part or whole of your dream.
It's something I've been doing again... I'll post about the contents of the dreams later.
But some of the things that happen are amazingly... well strange. One of the signs I'm dreaming is the sensation that my body is melting away. Habits I have in real life affect my dream state immensely... for example trying to rub your nose when it's massive or scratching behind your ear when your hands are melting away in unreality. Crazy shit.

Here is a dream I had in full detail. Parts of it were lucid and parts I could not control. I don't recommend reading this dream if your freaked/grossed out easily. I'll explain the parts that are lucid and those which aren't.

I stood on a barge floating down the east river in New York. The barge was filled with trash and there were 4 people on each side rowing. Many of the buildings we floated past were made completely of glass; inside the glass I could see people walking around. Some beat against the glass trying to escape. One person had a look of abject terror in his eyes and it frightened me. I turned my eyes away and held my hand between us... that was when I noticed my hands were blurry and sensationless. I tried to clenched them but they wouldn't. The tips of my fingers were blurred as if my hands were laytex and stretching by an unseen hand. A flailed my hand for a second and the boat rocked alittle. I could smell the river for the first time.

I remember screaming in my dream. The boat rocked alittle more and I realized we were moving faster. As we whirled by buildings I could see hundreds of little people in glass cubes within the buildings. All of them were trapped. Some of them sat there perfectly happy and others beat the sides in desperation. It was then I realized I was dreaming.
My entire body felt numb. Like I was trapped in my dream. I could feel my physical body but I could not move it. I struggled for a moment to move my hands and feet. For a moment I could feel both my dreaming and physical body... then somehow I slipped very slowly into the dream state again. My body felt so heavy I couldn't move it and soon I could not feel it at all.

I was floating down the hudson along the train tracks this time. To my side I could see will-o-wisps in the forest. I heard a strange singing, it was unworldly like a fairy or an angel would sing.
I knew I was asleep but I couldn't control myself completely. It was jerky almost like being in slow motion. I looked around to see the rowers were still there. But I was surprised to find the barge was gone. I was floating along the river carried by an unseen hand. I realized I was floating north and I had a sudden pain in my stomach. I didn't remember why, but I knew there was pain and sadness waiting for me at the end of the river. I tried to move but the unseen hand held firm no matter how much I squirmed. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a low brick wall hugging the river. I grasped at it and pieces of it came off and into the river. I finally caught a large piece and was suddenly jerked free.

I was now standing in a dark wood. I knew I was far from home and I suddenly felt very afraid. (I had forgotten I was dreaming <<.<<) I remembered there was a castle nearby (The same castle from my earlier dream. It was called Hathaway for some reason) so I walked through the forest as fast as I could. As a took steps it gradually became more and more winter like. When I emerged from the forest I was looking over fields of snow again. The castle was there but it looked like an old apartment building was attached to the side. Not far from me was the old man from my previous dream. I stood next to him and we watched the castle together.

"Isn't it beauty?" he asked me.
"It is" I agreed."

He started to speak in a language I couldn't understand (it sounded german). And then pointed to the castle.

"Can I go home now?" I asked him.
"You can't leave here without finding your sword first" he replied.
"All my friends are dead now, I can't go back into there" I pleaded with him.

I turned to see his response. But he was gone. I remembered that were was a pond beside the castle but I couldn't see it now. I walked into the castle and there was the old style elevator again. Standing in it was a young girl holding a tiny bear. She cradled the bear and rocked it gently as I walked in.

"Sollah?" I asked?
She inched her head up. "Yes, Have I met you before?"
I couldn't remember ever meeting her in this life, so I assumed it was in a past life.
I said nothing but started the elevator moving to the top.
She scratched the bear behind the ears.
"Piiky remembers you!, He says he saw you here before"
"I nodded. I was here once before"
(We talked more here but I don't remember the words exactly)

When the elevator opened again I was standing in the desert again. The elevator behind us started going down again.

"Why are you so eager to flee?" she asked me.
"I was hurt down there" I pointed down the elevator shaft.
I saw my hand was blurry again and realized I was still dreaming.
"Sollah?, Will you and Piiky walk with me to the desert?" without waiting for an answer I started to walk into the dunes. Behind me the sand buried the elevater shaft.

We wandered the desert for what seemed like eternity. I remembered that my companions were here before and I looked for them desperately. After awhile Moonlight spilled over the dunes and I looked behind me, I could see a lone woman walking toward me. She was hunched over and it seemed like part of her body was in a state of decay. She did not seem like living or dead. But something in between, too afraid of death to die completely and yet unwilling to live fully. I saw alot of myself in her and it unsettled her. The air changed and I suddenly knew that my companions had returned. The conflicted Assasin and the Dark Maiden stood shoulder to shoulder to the west of me. Both of them looked at the ghoulish woman approaching me. The moonlight was bright as she finally drew close. Maggots poured from her left eye socket. The closer she became the more hideous and mishapen she became. Bones jutted from her body and the fleash/skin was flaking off like dried paint. The conflicted Assasin (Dwight) walked up next to me and handed me one his swords. I looked down at it.

The sword was black. Like looking into the depths of the abyss. It was difficult to avert my gaze from it. I twitched my fingers a bit irl. And didn't feel comfortable at all. Memories rushed back to me. Swinging a sword from left to right. The high guard. The Vertical cut and the low guard.
For a second I was standing opposite of Justin Reed (A man I greatly admire) sparring. I hold the sword longingly for a moment and hand it back to the Assasin.

I spread my legs out in a swordsman stance as the ghoul approachs. It's someone else I regonize. Jenni with grossly distorted features. The moon that was so kind to her at distance showed how scarred her ghoul body was. Jagged cuts marred her bare flesh from leg to neck. Each one was still oozing with puss and gore. I drop my guard and turn away. The smell hits me like a truck. I start walking away and everyone follows me.

(I lose track of what happens for awhile) Suddenly I am aware that my companions have stopped. Sollah and Piiky point east. I look over and see the shadow Wesley standing on a dune. All around him are people I know, some are my close friends, others my bitter enemies. More then a few were faces I remembered but could not place names on. A dozen nameless bodies.
He holds my beaten short sword out and the moonlight reflects off of it.
"I assume you came for this" He sneered at me.
I said nothing. I only looked at him. Beside me I could see my companions drawing steel.
The ghouls eyes did not waver, she simply staggered forward with her skeletal arms outstretched.
The shadow man taunted me. He said something about bringing the forgotten dead of the past to battle and how I was doomed to her fate.
I felt suddenly very tired, I looked down and my body seemed exaggerated. A jagged scar ran across my bare chest and several long knife marks dotted each arm. The wounds were not healed but open and sore. I shuttered and closed my shirt over my chest, as I buttoned it up Sollah put her hand on my shoulder. "Piiky and I are going to make sure your ok."
Off to the side I saw the assasin and his wicked blades, looking into his hood I saw an eye cold with hate and another that gleamed with wicked passions. I remember standing there for a long second... like knowing what you want to say but not having the word. It was like time was stopped. All I could feel was the hot air blasting against me and grating of the sand against my skin.

I don't understand what happened next. But I remember flicking my arm out in a swordsmans stance. (This is actually something I trained myself to do many years ago, It allowed me to summon a weapon during a dream without conscious effort to do so. Only I had forgotten it... good thing it's subconscious eh?) I raised my sword in the high guard and watched as a wave of the nameless people descended upon me. Instantly I remembered the thrill of battle. The rush of adrenaline and the whirling of blade on blade. The high guard kicked in as the first reached me and my sword descended into his face going deep into his skull. The sword became held fast. I put my foot to his chest and pulled with all my mind. The sword came out, but the nameless swordsman didn't fall. He stared there with hole (Much larger then it should've been) just under his left eye. I reversed my sword stance and made a right-to-left slash at his exposed neck.

As his head left his shoulders all I saw was a dull and eeriely familar stare looking at me. The body slumped before me. I found myself surrounded. some nameless men grasped at my body with their cold hands. Others flashed weapons of odd sorts. one I remember had a baseball bat.

I could hear the roar of a bear and saw Sollah (As a bear) tearing the nameless men apart. Beside her the Dark maiden and the Ghoul fought side by side. The ghoul-woman ran her hands across them. Their icy looks were suddenly contorted with pain and they clutched their bodies in futility. The Dark Maiden appeared and disappeared almost at will. Wielding a large shard of darkness all I could see were her shimmering tiny celestial wings sillouted against the shadows.
I could not see the assasin but I knew that where ever he was their was death.

I saw an opening in the bodies, I darted through them and charged recklessly into the shadowman. Both our bodies seemed unreal. I could feel hot blood running inside me.
My feet left the ground for a moment and I lost sense of myself. All I could feel was the twisting of the steel. I was the sword. I clashed again and again. I could see the moonlight flickering as I turned. More and more nameless swordsman fell, I could feel their warm blood trickle down my body as I cut into them. I revelled in the carnage for a moment. slowly I became aware of my body again. The shadow man kept dodging behind the nameless swordsmen.

I suddenly felt sickened by the blood. I looked down and I was covered in it. My hands were slippery with it. I swallowed deeply and threw myself back into the battle.
My body was unreal. I felt light as air as I twisted and turned between the slashs of my enemies. Putting my sword back in scabbard I prepared for a quick draw. The shadow man stood between me and the moon. The light spilled onto me. I felt like a tyrant and a saint. The two struggled within me for a moment. Like a rope binding my hands I stood their in silence. The shadow man smiled and assumed a high guard. If I did not kill him in one blow I would be struck down. I knew this by instinct.

I could hear one my companions behind me cry in pain. Without looking the rope was cut free and I exploded forward. It felt like I was falling for a moment. I had no weight at all. I could only barely feel the sword within my hands. As I approached him I heard a yell. I couldn't tell who's it was but my mouth was open... My sword slid from it's scabbard as smoothly as water.
Finally being close to the Shadow man I could see his face was like mine but somehow aged. Like he had lived through a great tragedy. Pity weakened my swing for a moment. Time seemed to stop again. His sword fell into my left shoulder and my sword slashed his midsection open. scurrying across the sand we both fell back and circled one another.
Sollah's fur was matted with blood and gore. The dark maiden held her arm against her body was a grimance of pain. The assasin was walking from corpse to corpse as if watching their nameless souls leave their bodies.

I felt the warm blood rushing down my chest. I stood there confused. As if by default I put my sword away and slide into an iiajitsu stance. In my daze the shadowman went around my circle of awareness and began to attack my companions. He started with the weak ones cutting off the arms of the ghoul and hacking at the dark maiden. Sollah and Piiky rushed to help her but were too slow. She collapsed in a heap next to the ghoul who still tried to move.
Before I could blink he and the assasin were clashing. The shadowman held the same pained look as before but the assasin was filled with insanity. His sword of light and of darkness flared with each swing. The shadow man's moves were calculated and he blocked the assasins furious assault effortlessly. I came up behind the shadow man intent on anbush when he suddenly cut to the side. Suddeny the assasins blade fell onto me. I could feel it rending the flesh of my body cruely. he did not stop when his happened... he just had a maddenly look of glee as I collapsed.

I woke up screaming after that.