Dream Log: August 4, 2003

I haven't read of this effect before, but it seems that after a week or so of fairly frequent experimentation with salvia divinorum my dreams in general took on a more crisp feel. The imagery in general has been much more intense and vivid, and they seem to be more creative and thoughtful in general, bordering on the common characteristics of lucid dreaming, which led me to attempt to pursue more common truly lucid dreams through practices such as looking at the palms of my hands at random intervals throughout the day and mentally asking myself "Am I dreaming?" And last night I broke through and had a rather interesting and involved lucid dreaming experience.

At the start I didn't have the knowledge that I was dreaming, but only a heightened sense of awareness. I was in a white room, in fact everything was white. There was myself and then opposite me a row of people who all appeared to be in a state of suspended animation, with eyes open and nothing between myself and the person before me. They started to move, not using their feet or any other sort of mechanical means. They just sort of slid along as if on an invisible conveyor belt and I knew that it was my job simply to pick one I found interesting. They all had varied looks, bald men, attractive women, and old folks seemed to have equal representation. Finally a woman who interested me slid by and I "picked" her somehow. The whole continuing parade of personas stopped as she was before me and a sort of menu popped up in the air before me, with her still absolutely immobile beyond it. I'm not sure I could actually read the menu (many say you can't read anything in your dreams, I've always been skeptical of this however), though I new what all the selections meant. Every menu option was a different sort of interaction to have with the person before you. There was one for simply talking, one for sex, I think there were even subdivisions for topics of conversation, and then their were whole situations such as marriage proposal, first date, time periods, and roles. I remember seeing a selection for 50s housewife, rock star, etc. I finally just picked a place and we were both whisked away to a cliff overhanging a beach.

I can't recall what she said, if anything. But she was there and I was just overwhelmed by the imagery and forgot all about her. The hues were so vibrant, more vibrant than anything you'd ever encounter in reality. It was apparently dusk, and the sunset cast the oddest sky of bright blues and purples and there were vibrantly glowing green trees all about the cliff and the ocean had it's own brilliant flux of greens and blues, and I could literally feel the breeze sweeping through and smell the salt of the ocean.

From there I entered the more disjointed thoughts of dream space and just hopped around to different nonsensical scenes for a bit and somehow ended up in a movie theatre where the sound had gone out in the middle of the movie and we'd all filtered out to collect free passes to another showing of the movie at a later date. And for some reason, perhaps my frequent dream tests, I came to the realization that I was dreaming. From there I just got overly excited with the sense of control I had and didn't do much of interest, just started to jump really long distances in an attempt to fly. I managed to see much of some unknown city that way. I then finally finished off the whole dream sequence locked in some epic battle with some sort of greenish tree man in the top of some huge twisting vine-like tree.

Moments earlier in this dream scape I had fought my way to the top of the temple steps, brandished a long sword, sliced through row after row of guardsmen and pushed past peasants fleeing in confusion. I wanted the leader. His evil was so great that it seemed to pulse from the yellow and lime green leather armor he wore. His silky black mustache hung in two great tails from either side of lips pulled back in a sneer.

He'd known I was coming.

It was at this point when I came face to face with him, my chest heaving from exertion, that things changed. No longer was I a Xena-like warrior fighting to the top of the ancient Asian temple to carry-out justice. Instead I was but a simple peasant girl, perhaps one I'd pushed aside.

I was filled with fear and I was fleeing for my life.

Hundreds of my neighbors crowded beside me, each trying to run as fast as they could. Each attempting to hold fast to the little fingers they pulled along side them. It was a race against time and we knew there was little hope for survival.

The evil that had been done in the temple was being burned from existence; some god that had once been worshiped there was angry and we would all suffer for it. The ground was shaking, trees were toppling over and people were screaming. In the background behind my fast beating heart, strained breathing and burning muscles I heard a sizzling. I knew if I looked back I'd see black smoke growing ever closer, proceeded only a few feet by massive flames. If I had enough time to inhale I'd smell the sick scent of burnt flesh.

But all I could think about was running. Getting away. Saving myself and my siblings from the approaching river of lava.