This is Part 4 in the series, click here to go back to the beginning.
Several months had passed since my first lucid dream and it'd quickly gone from a curiosity to a full blown obsession. I thought about it constantly. I couldn't wait to get to sleep every night. My real life was seeming less and less interesting and my bedtime was getting progressively earlier. With all the hours of sleep I was clocking I curiously never felt entirely rested. Reality was starting to get a bit slippery as I constantly tested the world for it's boundaries. The question 'am I dreaming?', cycled through my head on an almost constant rotation. I was sleeping more, but waking up exhausted.
My powers peaked one night while dreaming that I was inside an immense greenhouse. I was sitting on a bench taking in my surroundings, rows of potted plants stretched as far as the eye could see. Where previously I’d be excited to talk, have sex with everybody or fly out the window, I’d realised there was more to appreciate by moving slowly with purpose and taking in the finer details. I sat still, mindfully observing my inner universe.
There were characters pottering about, tending to plants, smelling flowers. Small children played games by the fountain. They were as real to me as anyone I'd met in my waking life. I felt a kind of love for all these people and a melancholy for the world I might destroy by selfishly waking up. I started to focus on a woman wearing a knitted cap, she was carrying a heavy pot and struggling with it. She seemed frustrated. I attempted something I'd never before tried, I willed her to place it on the ground, I willed her to sit, to drink from a glass of water and watched as it all unfolded before me. She smiled. I turned to a man pruning an overgrown banksia, I willed him to drop his clippers and put his hands in his back pockets and begin whistling the national anthem. I saw a butterfly and observed as it flew wherever I wanted it to go. Being in control and aware of myself in a dream was profound enough, but now I was in control of everything and everyone else. The characters, the animals, the environment, everything.
As I stared off into the distance, I noticed the tell tale signs of an impending wake up, the colour seemed to fade to black & white and everything felt far away and out of focus. I wasn't ready to leave so for the first time I attempted to use my powers to resist, it took nearly all my energy but my efforts were having a subtle effect, I inhaled and tightened my focus, miraculously the fading stopped. I concentrated harder, stretched my hand out in front of me in a dramatic pose and proceeded to bring everything back into focus, all in it's right place with colour restored. I exhaled a deep breath and looked around in satisfaction. The dream continued on for what seemed like days but it felt like the lesson had already been imparted so there was not much left for me to do. With new skills acquired I took one last long unblinking look at my creation, fell backwards and allowed myself to wake up.
It was 3:00 in the afternoon and I felt terrible.