Geoff dreamed about lucid dreaming before he actually did it. It was exhilarating within the dream and frustrating once he woke up. But after the initial disappointment, he decided to focus on the exhilarating aspect.
He was on a beach, in the dark. It was night. The beach wasn't exactly a beach entire; it was edged somehow in the upper reaches of his mind by walls, as if it were in fact a very large exhibit space. A space in a museum designed to look like a beach. But it was definitely night. The stars were out.
He saw a number of birds stalking the beach. They were great grey birds, elegant in their humble feathers, with long necks and legs. They were tending their chicks, which peeped out of holes in the ground.
"We're cassowaries," said a dignified bird to him.
It's remarkable... do I even know that word? thought Geoff within the dream. It's amazing that I'd dream about cassowaries.
There was a turtle at the beach, too. An anthropomorphic turtle, or turtle-man, that walked on its hind legs and turned to bite him with a long turtle beak--
This is too strange, thought Geoff on the instant. I'm lucid dreaming! And he knew then that he should be able to control the dream.
The turtle didn't bite him.
"No, I'd rather ride you," he told the turtle.
"Where do you want to ride me?" asked the turtle, suddenly a friend to man.
"I want to fly on you," said Geoff, because he knew that people were supposed to take advantage of the ability to fly in lucid dreams. He felt he had scarcely any time to think, but that that would be a good choice -- and before he knew it, it was happening. He felt a whoosh of liftoff, which he reflected was indeed pleasurable... but then the scene became hazy. He was not, it seemed, flying anywhere at all.
He found himself in a hallway with his academic advisor, discovering that he had asked her for a massage. A good idea for a lucid dream, he thought as she began to rub his arm pleasurably, there where they stood in the hallway. Then he wondered why, if he could do anything he wanted, he bothered to ask his academic advisor when he could, for instance, ask Halle Berry. He went to go find her, and the dream dissolved.
When Geoff woke, he knew instantly that he hadn't had a lucid dream at all. He hadn't been a bit conscious. He was intrigued on two counts though--
"I amazed I even know the word cassowary," as he told roommate Paul, and
If I'm dreaming that I'm having a lucid dream, it's at least in my consciousness... and I must be getting closer.
I have had this exact experience. Minus the cassowaries. I think it was Secretary Birds.
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