GSLD is the acronym for Genre Specific Lucid Dreaming where you immerse yourself into some entertaining genre from waking life to see if you can re-create and simulate that genre in your dream environment. This is what started me on my journey into lucid dreaming back in 1987 as I saw dreams as one of the most premier forms of entertainment assuming at that time, I could get a handle on controlling them. Which I have, and as a result have enjoyed participating in my 4-6 dreams each night, with many of them being lucid spanning 32 years.
I recently was notified from a person who successfully had their first GSLD from a reddit and youtube post on this subject. This is what they had to say:
“Hey Ian! Just had my first genre specific lucid dream! Wanted to say thanks. Rewatching you’re video over and over again trying to really imagine myself in the fictional world helped a ton more then you can ever imagine. I’ll never stop lucid dreaming after what I experienced. thanks to dreamers like you, Daniel Love, and many more people I get to live out my wildest fantasies. Also just wondering if you’re done with YouTube, etc? Anyway, thanks a lot!”
Here is the link to the Reddit post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LucidDreaming/comments/5shkwz/genre_specific_lucid_dreaming_gsld/
Here is the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02QpEFZuQkQ
I’m not very active on Social Media, YouTube or Reddit these days largely due to my career so free time is a luxury and I’ve been using that time to get in shape, work out at the gym and then do some cardio in the evening. By the time it’s all said and done, it’s time for bed, dream, wake up rinse and repeat this seemingly never ending time-crunch so that is why I’m unable to consistently fuel other passions regarding dream content. It’s also very hard to make the time to create a dream journal entry. Let’s face it… life can keep one very busy. Suffice to say, I’ve been making time for interviews to discuss lucid dreaming and other dream experiences so keep an eye on my interview page and I’ll keep populating those as they come in.
Now the other night, before this dream. I had an awesome Lucid Dream where I created a movie to star in. It was a Film Noir style movie where I played a Private Detective who was investigating some strange murders. I role-play a lot in my dreams, like I said… largely used for fun and entertainment because why not. It keeps the dream world interesting enough to return to nightly. When I went to the crime scene, there was this dead mage straight out of Neverwinter Nights as I am also playing that game because I wanted to have a D&D influenced dream so those elements kicked in on this one, but really kicked in on the one tonight. How I know it was a mage was the obvious D&D style robes with arcane embroidery, long thick lines on the edging. Not something one would expect from everyday fashion.
The mage had this chain wrapped around it so I started to unwrap the chain, and the mage re-animated, it’s eyes opening up with crackling energy but then the asphalt opened up and the mage dropped into the abyss. This zombie like motorcycle cop then crawls out from the portal and acting, I recoil in fear as it approaches. Long story short, the undead police officer was sent to assist me in this case because supernatural forces were at play and said the Seraphim had sent him to help. He infused me with this arcane energy, a green misty force that infused the body granting magical powers.
After he imbued me with the energy he crawls back into the portal and off I go to explore these new found powers. I end up bumping into Stephen Colbert as one of the dream characters and we end up talking about Dungeons and Dragons, I tell him I can kind of playing a blend of modern day life infused with D&D influences. He thought that was very cool. I agree, it’s fun. As I didn’t have time to record it all, much of the granular details and what not are a bit layered over in waking induced amnesia that often follows dreaming if we don’t record them down.
Today’s dream was more D&D accurate, as I fell asleep I started programming the dream as I’ve described many times in many other dream journal entries how one starts to shape the emerging hypnagogic shift into the desired framework for the dream. I started creating really amazing fantasy based forests with these trees that had a pear shaped trunk, and as it constructed added more elements to the setting like insects and made sure some had nice glowing effects like fireflies, to really create a solid fantasy setting. Once you start to think visually in the language of dreams, it can paint quite an amazing setting using thought as the programming language.
Suffice to say, I was now in this fantasy setting conjured up by using simple dream programming techniques and made my way to a small hamlet with a tavern. Once you are in that focus state, it’s just a form of thinking in the high fidelity graphics of what we perceive as dream experiences. Lots of fun. I end up banding together with a small party of adventurers and we set out to investigate a rumor of an evil necromancer that is foiling the land and bringing an unnatural evil to the hamlet.
Off we go set out on our adventure and make it to this wizards tower. I end up using stealth to infiltrate to tower and sneak inside. I crawl into this stone air duct and end up coming to where the wizard was. Now what made him very cool was his familiar which was a sentient Octopus with cartoon eyes and a really bad attitude. From this duct I was over top of the wizard and used Mage Hand to pour contact poison into his pocket. When he reaches in to figure out what was going on, his hand was now coated in the poison and he collapses dead.
I drop down to then get the rest of the party, but that is when I discover his familiar, this sentient octopus that screams out, “You! You killed my master! You’ll pay for that you wretched bastard!”
I see this thing walking with it’s tentacles on the floor, it’s jelly soft head flopping, the googly cartoonish eyes but from a CGI or graphical standpoint it was beautifully animated and instantly loved looking at it. Except had to stay in character and play the game. I start to run with this octopus familiar screaming with rage and anger, it’s tentacles flopping in a comedic run as it pursued.
I duck around a corner into a small enclave and use minor illusion to create a stone wall and conceal myself in from the angry little guy as I hear him screaming profanities and could hear his flopping tentacles as they slapped against the stone floor until I could hear it no more. After it had disappeared I made way to the door and let in the party which then came with
Unfortunately, like all good dreams the inevitable wake-up happened which was too bad, I could have spent hours upon hours in that fictional world because it was so damn awesome and fun. I mean… simulating Dungeons and Dragons in a dream? Check!
Having deja vu linked to past dreams is more common than we think! Share this page to help raise awareness.
