Rapid Eye Movement

I am becoming quite adept at the art of lucid dreaming.

More specifically, I use the WBTB method, going back to sleep between 30 to 45 minutes after waking up. I usually try to sleep on a well-lit room, allowing the morning sunlight to interrupt my sleep, and then wake up to read the morning news, check email, etc. After that, I am ready to ignore breakfast hunger and start transitioning directly between wake and sleep, by prolonging an imagined situation in my mind as I get tired again.

In the past, I have imagined a walk through the Pyramids of Egypt, flights through the UCLA campus, and an afternoon of soccer in La Bombonera. Yesterday, I thought of myself sitting in a Buenos Aires coffee shop on an autumn day. Everything in the coffee shop was different shades of brown, as were all the people and things visible through the window. The coffee shop looked just like the set of Cafe Libre, the Christian TV show at which my sister used to volunteer. Nobody was there, however, at least not in the tables and chairs in front of me. A man cleaned the bar, and listened to AM radio.

That's where my phone rang in my dream, and I picked up, talking to a friend in Norcal. I don't remember what we said, but I don't think it was much more than our usual contentious witticisms. Later on, I took a taxi to my grandma's house and walked around the house. The dream ended there.

Funny thing is, hours later I checked on my phone and I had an actual received call at 8:15AM that morning, from that friend. I had been on the phone, in my half-asleep state, for four minutes, and I thought it was all part of my lucid dream.

I don't know if this is a case of reality filtering into the subconscious, or the opposite, or simple absent-mindedness. I just think it was a phenomenal experience.