This post is originally created by /u/peterwilli at Wed, 14 Sep 2022 19:41:48 GMT UTC. Click here to view original post.
This was one of the most trippy things that could've happened! I failed lucid dreaming, and somehow ended up in the dream of a stranger. How could I tell? Everything about the dream felt unlike my own. Nothing was like how I would've dreamed it, making it eerie... I felt like a stranger in my own head. Yet, it was beautiful in its own way.
With that, lets dive in the dream space.
The dream started in my own dream. I was on horse riding (much like how I was as a kid). I immediately became lucid.
Desperate for a way to get out and do, well, lucid dreaming stuff, I checked my surroundings: I was holding a horse by a leash, and was about to walk towards the place where the horse riding began.
My mom was walking right behind me. I knew full well that if I were to walk away right now, it'll spark a nightmare, my mom would come running after me and turn into some kind of demon.
Instead, I said "Hey mom, my horse is really agitated, I'll go walk him around a little".
"That's ok, good luck", my mom said, and I walked away with the horse following me.
Once I was far away enough (but my mom still had me in her line of sight, as I only walked in 1 direction), I left the horse and walked outside.
My mom came running after me: "Hey you have horse riding lessons! Get back here!", she screamed angrily.
Damn! So close... I walked back with a sigh and started to think of different ways to do it. A second idea came: what if I walk out of sight? "Mom my horse is still super agitated, is it ok if I take another walk?"
"Sure, that's fine, just be back on time", she answered.
This time, I walked outside with the horse until I was well out of sight of anyone in or around the stables.
IRL, there would be a place to ride the horses outside, but in my dream there was a forest. Aside from the location, nothing seemed out of place.
I bound the horse to a tree on the edge of the forest, in case I needed him later for when it goes wrong again.
Nobody went after me as I walked into the forest.
And then everything went dark.
The transition could be described as seeing black spots in front of your eyes slowly growing in size until everything is dark.
"What…? Did I wake up?" I asked myself. Sleeping with a sleeping mask, it's perfectly plausible that I woke up and that I'm seeing the darkness of the mask.
But no, I could not move or get out of bed. It wasn't sleep paralysis. I had no body at all - I was a floating soul in an empty black void. Nothing, no sound, no light, no sight, no feeling, no smell. All I did was existing when nothing else did.
I tried to remain still for the whole period as to not wake up if I was still dreaming, and waited it out.
I didn't have to wait long. Around me, the forest came back, the sounds of birds chirping came from all directions and things started to look like as if the dream would progress as it left off before.
Except it didn't.
The forest, while I could tell was the same, looked nothing like what it was before. Yes, the trees were the same kind, and it was around the same time of day as before the dream went dark, but... this wasn't my forest!
The style was slightly different, everything felt out of my own head. Even the floor was slightly different! Everything just... wasn't me...
I'm not saying this was some kind of spiritual encounter where I suddenly entered someone else's mind, but it certainly felt like it!
Nothing was scary or threatening to me, but the slight change of art style, combined with the fact that I still was a floating spectator with no control as to where I went, rather than a physical body with limbs made it even less natural.
My "camera" stopped after panning in on a pathway in the forest that went 4 different directions, much like a sandy crossroad.
Soon, a boy spawned in the center of the crossroad. He was young, around 15 years old and wore clothing similar to what I would wear on an average sunny day: shorts of a mostly solid color and a basic shirt, nothing too fancy.
The boy didn't see me, and if he looked into my direction, he was looking straight through me, it was clear he wasn't aware of my presence.
I can't explain, but I could tell he was getting lucid right there on that path.
You could see him looking around, trying to take in the environment and getting ready to execute his plan of action. I felt happy for him, for he too has unlocked a power of being God in your own little big domain.
However, I could tell it wasn't his first time, as immediately he set out doing what he wanted to do, and he did it very well from the get-go. He walked towards me, but right when he passed me, my "camera" rotated to keep track of him and apparently, behind me was a cave sealed with rocks.
Soon, from behind us, 2 people came from the right side of the crossroad - 2 girls, one Chinese girl around 12yo, and one blond girl of adult age. The blond girl had her hair in a knot and the Chinese girl had her hair hanging over her shoulders.
I could tell that the boy knew the girls, and he seemed afraid of them.
"Hey let's go play!" the girls asked him, nodding in the direction of the path to the right, urging him to go with them.
The boy decided to ignore them and kept walking towards the cave, albeit slowly.
The girls started to display an increasingly angry face and as they walked closer to the boy, that face became disproportionally angry. Like the boy, they too could not see me, and at no point I felt they were a threat to me.
I noticed the boy getting increasingly fearful, even feeling his warmth as fear started to strike now that the boy can go no further due to the cave blocking his way, with the girls closing in on him.
Armed with only faith, he pushed his hands on the cave.
Soon, I heard the sound of breaking and falling rocks as the boy pushed his hand on the cave's blocked entry. With no strength at all, the boulders collapsed with a lot of noise, and opened the entrance into the cave.
The girls simply looked at him with disappointment, but made no further movement to attack him. I started wondering why...
A man got out of the cave, but never fully exiting it, just standing halfway outside. An old man, I guess around his 70s. He had short gray hair, a black suit and black pants, and polished black shoes.
The man was exceptionally well-dressed given that he just came out of a cave with a lot of dust around.
"Ah... You finally made it", the man told the boy, in a soft, elderly British accent.
The girls looked angrily at the man, but decided not to attack, somehow they were afraid to get any closer.
I can't say for sure that this is what really happened, but everything clicked somehow. I started to realize that this is very similar to my lucid dreams but in the style of whatever is in the boys mind:
- Getting lucid, pretty much at random
- Someone tries to pull you back in a normal dream as it should progress (in my case it's my family, in his case it's the 2 girls, whoever they are).
- There's something you're after (in his case, breaking in that cave)
- There's some entity that breaks every fear that is in your dream (In his case it's the old man)
While relatable, I felt by no means comfortable in this situation, my mind was still looking for similarities, anything to make me realize this still is my dream.
Sadly, everything, not just the art style, but even the way the man spoke, wasn't something that I'd call my imagination, driving me further into madness, but also, further into joy - there was something pleasant about having to put in no effort but to watch. It was very similar to watching a movie, but more immersive, and it didn't take any time out of my day.
"Come... I have made some changes to the place, I'm sure you'll love them", the English man continued slowly with a crystal clear British accent.
The boy, who wasn't afraid of the man, and seemingly knows him, followed him inside the cave.
My view followed the 2 into the cave, where I was greeted by an ... elevator? That just stood there in the cave.
Elevators are a common theme in my dreams, so it's nice to see that this guy also has them. While the object was relatable, once again, it was a completely different art style.
For starters, this wasn't really an elevator, it was more like a fantasy transportation device that looked like an elevator. It looked like a box the size of a phone cell, with windows on all sides. It was quite spacious and there was a double bottom underneath, possibly to hide any magical engine that makes this thing tick.
The rest of the vehicle was designed like a Vintage late 1940s NYC bus in a light blue color scheme.
The dream fast-forwards to them flying inside the elevator-like device, passing the most magnificent lands, mountains, forests and waters. It was flying around 20 meters above the ground, incredibly fast - I think our ground speed was over 300 kilometers per hour.
My vision was above them. Still, I couldn't move, I couldn't talk, I couldn't even adjust my vision! Someone, or something else was looking for me.
I could only think: "All those beautiful landscapes and they fly over it! Such a shame!" I thought, eager to walk there instead (something I'd do in my dream).
After a short flight, the magical machine landed in the town square of a fantasy city, next to a basic circular fountain with no statue on it, just a decorative stone pillar that spews the water up to make it fall back down.
It was very lively, with people walking around, featuring mixes of vintage (but futuristic for it's seemingly medieval theme) and steampunk styles, with the elevator standing out, borrowing post-ww2 boomer era vintage aesthetic. Combined with the streets made of cobblestone paths, it was a wonderful sight to behold.
I couldn't believe what I saw! People were mostly paying no attention to the elevator that just landed in the middle of the square, they seemed to go on about their day. Some were washing clothes some were carrying around what seemed to be milk.
My vision remained hovering slightly above the elevator, but was looking down upon the people and the 2 passengers getting out of the elevator.
Then... the noises were quickly drowned out by critters where the camera then focussed on. They were dragons. Around 15 tiny, fat looking dragons waddling around town.
I wouldn't even call them dragons: Each one of them was so fat that their bellies were basically fully round. They had wings too small to fly, and overall looked more like pigs with wings than anything draconic.
They made a cute pug-like noise whenever they moved, and I think despite their posture, they were somehow unbelievably cute, I could imagine they were a common pet in this world.
The old man pointed at a castle out of town, this is probably what he wanted to show the boy.
As they walked out, the dream faded out, and I woke up for real.
Wow... yeah. That was one way to wake up. It was extremely strange to see something that just couldn't be my imagination.
While it wasn't fun to be so extremely restricted that you didn't even have your own body to even breathe, it was really nice, and entertaining to just be in the backseat for a change!
Maybe even spiritually enlightening, to see someone else's lucid dream life, because while I was in other people's dreams before, never was it a lucid dream, so this was more relatable than anything I had before.