Your Keen dreams

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ckguy
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Your Keen dreams

Post by ckguy »

I remember there was a thread years ago on the ezBoard PCKF about Keen-related dreams people had.

As you probably guessed, I started this thread because I had one recently. (I'm sure exactly when it was, my sleep scheduled has been utterly garged lately.) Anyway, this was a Keen-related dream so much as a Keener-related dream.

CommanderSpleen and I were hanging out in a Wal-Mart or something for no reason. (Wow, this sounds kind of creepy.) I don't know what CS looks like in real life, and I don't remember what the guy in my dream looked like, and he never said he was CS, but I knew it was him, because Dream Logic is awesome. Anyway, we were talking about random stuff. The only topic I remember was this: Apparently, it was a plausible that at some point in the not-too-distant future, the Earth's magnetic north pole would somehow split up into many different north polls, spread out all over the planet. (Basic science fail?) And, because of the havok that strong magnetic fields wreak on human bodies (not sure where this came from) there would be many places on Earth that would now be uninhabitable, effectively splitting the human population into many non-interacting groups. Somehow, this was associated with an image (like the kind that would appear in a TV science program) of a map of Australia (not the whole world, just Australia) with points on it, representing the new multiple magnetic north poles, with multiple concentric circles around each, representing the regions that could no longer support human life because of the magnetic fields.

I assume we were going to go on to talk about the effects of divergent evolution on the human species or some such, but at the moment, my dad and sister showed up, and said that we (the three of us, and not CS) had to go. As we left, he asked who I was talking to, and I said "Jim." I was about to go on to explain how actually no, his name isn't Jim it's Stephen, but I woke up before I could say it.

You guys probably think I'm totally crazy now. I actually did dream this the other day.

So yeah. Any other Keen-related dreams?

(edit - fixed a typo "three of us had to do" -> "had to go")
(edit again - another typo "to" -> "too")
(edit number three - WHAT is it with me and typos in this post - I just noticed the topic said 'deams')
Last edited by ckguy on Sat Nov 22, 2008 16:53, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by KeenRush »

Hehe. Sure thing. I've had quite a few, some of them just like this -- in one was LevelLord (whose picture I had never seen at time I had the dream) and Spleen and some others. But can't remember more about it than that we were in some futuristic building. 8)

Dream logic indeed is rather interesting. For example last week I had a dream where I first knew I was in my town, and suddenly I was in a different town and knew it, but the sudden change of the town was perfectly reasonable. :dopefish
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ckguy
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Post by ckguy »

KeenRush wrote:in one was LevelLord (whose picture I had never seen at time I had the dream) and Spleen and some others. But can't remember more about it than that we were in some futuristic building. 8)
This sounds very familiar. Have you ever told this story before?
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Post by Commander Spleen »

Haha, that's an awesome dream CK Guy. *creeped out* :disguised

Multiple North poles... sounds like a solidly absurd basis for a mod storyline.

And yes, I recall that KeenRush mentioning that dream a long time ago. There was something that LevelLord said in it while absently focussing on her computer.

I seem not to recall many Keen-related dreams, and when I do they're about the games themselves, and never Keeners. There was a recent one of some mod where the player turns into a shoe when jumping or pogoing, but that's about all I remember of it.

The best one I had was years ago, which I've described a couple of times before. It was some kind of lunar environment with igloos. The kind of grey you get on a slightly cloudy but moonlit night, perhaps with the loneliness of a lamplit street on a dark night.

It was as emotive as my first time playing Keen, mixed with some other feeling that I could only vaguely describe as alienness, somehow not belonging to the place at all (possibly to do with the fact that it wasn't on a computer, I was actually there).

I managed a couple of lucid dreams this year, but each time got distracted by other things (in one by playing Lego in the yard). My intention is to gather enough awareness to remember to create a Keen world to play in, but that's yet to happen.

These past couple of mornings have seen some powerful dreams, things like really long journeys along a road leading to a deep ocean with a crossing made of almost-submerged rocks, where I fell in; getting exploded by a nuclear blast; running around a busy institution (some mixture of library, pool, school, various municipalities), then jumping my way down a bleacher but making one jump that was too far and causing a fatal injury. In fact, each one of these dreams ended in some kind of death, attempting to escape my body but not quite succeeding, then waking up.

In one I managed to compose an entire song, a kind of pop song with somewhat dark female vocals. I can only remember two lines. The first was something about crimson blood flowing through my veins, and I'm like, duh, what a cliche and redundant concept. Then the next line was about cutting off one's hand at the wrist to prove it. The song was pretty interesting, but the rest is forgotten.

Actually, these dreams seemed more like hallucinations than dreams, and were of a time-bending nature--several of them were between snooze alarms of about 5 minutes apart, but seemed to go for hours.

It's so very easy to be creative in dreams, but somehow it proves difficult to remember anything about Keen when the opportunity arises. One of these days! </rant>
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Post by Genius314 »

I had a dream once, where K:M was some sort of clubhouse thing, with a computer lab inside... and there were a bunch of Keeners around.

I think LevelLord also appeared in a random dream once...
Actually, I've had a few dreams where a random person is supposedly someone from the internet...
KeenRush wrote:in one was LevelLord (whose picture I had never seen at time I had the dream) and Spleen and some others. But can't remember more about it than that we were in some futuristic building.
Maybe I'm thinking of a different story... but wasn't that the one where you couldn't talk, so you typed something like "want to play a game" in the URL box on the computer?
(No one else probably remembers that part... Why do I remember such random things?)
Commander Spleen wrote:I managed a couple of lucid dreams this year, but each time got distracted by other things (in one by playing Lego in the yard). My intention is to gather enough awareness to remember to create a Keen world to play in, but that's yet to happen.
I think I lucid dreamed (dreamt... dream'd... dram?) once.
I "woke up," got out of bed, and was like "Woah, I'm lucid dreaming!!" Then, I wanted to lengthen the dream, so I tried spinning around (which several websites say lengthens them for some reason). Then I tried changing the TV with my mind... it didn't work, and the next thing I knew, it was a regular dream again. :dead
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Post by ckguy »

Commander Spleen wrote:It's so very easy to be creative in dreams, but somehow it proves difficult to remember anything about Keen when the opportunity arises. One of these days! </rant>
My Janitor LOL joke that I posted recently ("How fast is your computer?" / "Well then, you'd better go catch it!") was, I'm pretty sure, invented in my sleep. Or maybe just as I was waking up or something. (This one was followed up later in the day by such gems as Q: Why did the chicken cross the road? A: Jokes. Or, alternatively, A: Quantum entanglement.) Anyway, yeah, several times I have been incredibly creative in dreams, wake up, and have no idea what it was. One time, someone played a new album for me (in a dream) and it was INCREDIBLE. At some level, I was writing this amazing music, of course none of which I could remember when I awoke. (On a side note: In the dream, the person introducing me to the album referred to it as being 'a real fishbrain album', a description which in the dream made perfect sense and fit the music exactly.)

Also, lucid dreaming: I want to experience this so bad! It sounds absolutely incredible.

Edit: Also Also: Synthesizers that you can control with your mind: This had better be invented before I die.
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Post by KeenRush »

CK Guy wrote:This sounds very familiar. Have you ever told this story before?
Indeed, I told it in another Keen dream topic... :)

And Genius314, yes, now when you mention it, I think there was something like that, yes. I didn't remember it, but when you said it it came to my mind -- or then just because of that... (Odd that you people remember my dreams better than I do. :crazy (And by the way, now I think I have said this exactly same thing before. Who knows how many iterations this topic has had? :crazy))

Intresting dreams Spleen and CK Guy. In my dreams I've listened 'new' (as they only existed in my dream... too bad) albums by my favourite bands, and I've been stunned when I've woken up, Did I make those songs up?? But too bad I can remember nothing concrete when I wake up... Didn't the Beatles make some famous song so that one of them heard it in his dream and then wrote it all down when he woke up? :)

I end up to lucid dreams once in a while but I haven't tried to create them purposefully. I'm not too interested in them, even if I'm very amazed about it being possible -- there's a kind of meta level in brain that goes completely unaccessed if not purposefully via some dream trick. Almost like from some movie! If there is such a system, why can't we access it easier? It's like being awake but completely in your imagination instead of what your senses bring in. Why doesn't it happen more often naturally? Crazy. In one lucid I wished for some company (hey, a guy can try... :o) and so about ten people appeared, in a blink of an eye, but none of them had faces. They just appeared all of a sudden all around me, and I got quite a shock, as I'm not too used to seeing completely faceless people. Then I escaped by trying to jump down from some heights, but I just slowed down in midair just as soon as I jumped, and was stuck there in the air, unable to fall. :) I even tried it again, but same results. That's the last time I'll use Keen's escape plan... :dopekeen
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Post by ckguy »

KeenRush wrote:Didn't the Beatles make some famous song so that one of them heard it in his dream and then wrote it all down when he woke up? :)
Yeah, I was actually planning on mentioning this in my post, but I never did somehow. Apparently Paul McCartney wrote the tune to 'Yesterday' in his sleep. When he woke up, he somehow remembered the tune still, and went around asking people if they had ever heard the tune before. When none of them did, he guessed he must have just written it in his sleep.
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Post by Commander Spleen »

Woot, I achieved my third lucid dream for the year this morning. The first part felt like another out-of-body attempt, which I tried to cut off part way because it was becoming uncomfortable, tumbling into nothingness.

Thinking I'd woken up, I got up and headed outside, along the way noticing my cats each had a twin, and there were kittens everywhere. Outside there were more duplicates and kittens. I was starting to panic because a) this didn't make sense and b) having to look after all these cats would be inconvenient.

Then I remembered again that it was a dream and started laughing. Once again, for some reason the first thing that came to mind was, LEGO! But I had the presence of mind to quickly think, No! Keen! Unfortunately, visualising a new Keen game didn't work, so I tried to form a first-person scene, jumping into the air hoping a pogo would manifest out of sheer expectation.

Alas, that didn't work either, so the next plan was to create an alien world around me to explore. I got as far as visualising Martian hills at the beginning of Keen 1, but soon fell back into a dream about a middle aged man building a dining table through a doorway while his wife nagged at him about mundane things.

It was quite amusing when I woke up because I couldn't be sure any more if this was a dream or not, and started wondering if I might currently be in an afterlife illusion or something. But after going through some recent memories I convinced myself it was real enough for now, so I went back to sleep.

Getting closer to that lucid Keen dream, but maybe next time I should try something simpler to get the hang of it.
KeenRush wrote:If there is such a system, why can't we access it easier?
Make it a habit to ask yourself if you're dreaming during your waking hours, whenever you can. The habit carries over into your sleep, and when it kicks in and you criticise the surroundings, it will become apparent that it's a dream and you can essentially wake up within it.

Holding your hands up in front of you and looking at them, or turning in circles, are also meant to help, as those things are supposedly difficult for a dream to emulate, or perhaps simply make you more aware of yourself.
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Post by MortimerInBlack »

In my experience, the longer I sleep in, the stranger, more memorable my dreams are. I have been doing a lot of sleeping in lately, but no keen dreams yet.
"Actually, these dreams seemed more like hallucinations than dreams, and were of a time-bending nature--several of them were between snooze alarms of about 5 minutes apart, but seemed to go for hours."
Yes that happens with me too, like when I sleep in. I wake up every hour then fall asleep again, and each time have big dreams. Or like when i used to wake up early for school, get ready, then go nap on the couch till i got my ride. Those dreams were weird too.

BTW, what do u all mean by 'lucid dream?' Is that the kind of dream where u can actually control ur actions instead of just watching urself do things like in a movie? Or is it more like u have supernatural powers and can change ur environment, and what kind of dream u have.

Dreams where u have conscious control are the best. A lot of times i fly in those dreams--just by thinking it. But then what always happens is I start thinking about how I'm really flying, how i really have that control, and then lose the power to fly... :(
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Post by Commander Spleen »

MiB wrote:BTW, what do u all mean by 'lucid dream?' Is that the kind of dream where u can actually control ur actions instead of just watching urself do things like in a movie? Or is it more like u have supernatural powers and can change ur environment, and what kind of dream u have.
Yep, pretty much. It's basically where you have full conscious awareness within the dreamstate. From there, with practice, it's possible to control the dream and create any experience you choose.
MiB wrote:Dreams where u have conscious control are the best. A lot of times i fly in those dreams--just by thinking it. But then what always happens is I start thinking about how I'm really flying, how i really have that control, and then lose the power to fly... Sad
Yep, that sounds like a lucid dream. After speaking to someone today about it, I acquired a few new pointers. Next time instead of immediately trying to take control, I'll establish my presence within the dream, starting with my hand as previously mentioned, maintaining and refining my focus until I can form a representation of my physical body with which to explore the environment.

Hmm, perhaps once that works I should create a computer, preferably a brand new 386. It would be much easier to imagine a game running on a machine. Though it would probably be a good plan to start with some simpler things. What they would be I'm yet to decide, maybe just simple things like flying about and exploring places I've already been IRL.
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Post by Malvineous »

I found the wikibook on Lucid Dreaming quite informative.
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Post by KeenRush »

Is like everyone lucid dreaming now? :confused I don't much like this direction, do we have to have control over every single thing in our lives? Dreams now? Interesting as it could be, to some at least, I don't like the idea of everyone just escaping into their fantasy worlds and not giving a garg about the real one. Maybe I'm too old. :old At least I feel too tired about this modern way of life.
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Post by Commander Spleen »

Malvineous wrote:I found the wikibook on Lucid Dreaming quite informative.
Hmm, nifty. *downloads*
KeenRush wrote:I don't much like this direction, do we have to have control over every single thing in our lives? Dreams now? Interesting as it could be, to some at least, I don't like the idea of everyone just escaping into their fantasy worlds and not giving a garg about the real one. Maybe I'm too old.
Who said anything about escaping? Certainly I suppose that's a possibility for some, in a similar way that people can get addicted to drugs, but it's the potential for new ideas and inspiration that can be actualised in waking reality I'm more interested in.
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Post by Commander Spleen »

This morning I had a dream about a game that was similar to my Das Viva minigame from a 24 Hours of Keen back in the day, except the viva was very large and flew around collecting other small vivas. It was nifty.
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