Title: Electric Dreams Volume 1 Number 6 File: Electric Dreams 1(6) ========================================================== Electric Dreams back issues are available to the public and listed individually. For an index of Articles and dreams on Electric Dreams, See the IIDCC Research Tools area. ================================================================ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Electric Dreams | | Volume 1 Issue 6 | | 5 June 1994 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Please send suggestions, contributions, mailing list and back issue | | requests to cbeattie@uwspmail.uwsp.edu or cbeatty@worf.uwsp.edu | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dedicated to sharing and exploring dreams __________________________________________________________________________ Notes for the week Hang on, this is the longest issue we've had yet! 1. It seems that my sixty hour work week is already screwing me up, and last week I forgot to put in some commentary sent in by Pamela Ryan. That commentary will be found in this issue. Sorry for the inconvenience. 2. We got lots of contributions this week. I would like to thank everyone who sent something in. Good job! 3. Thanks to everyone who complemented and thanked me for the work I've been putting in on the newsletter. Knowing that the people I'm mailing this to are enjoying it makes me feel a whole lot better. __________________________________________________________________________ Dream Comments =====The Waitress & Her Bodily Fluids-Issue 2============================= I am eager to hear BJ's own ideas about this. Since hearing that he is a MALE FEMINIST, I've revised my "take" on the dream: perhaps he feels *confronted with* the negative state of the feminine condition (low wages, forced into service jobs, forced into the "pink uniform" -- female roles.....) and feels helpless to do very much about it. He feels an unjust sense of guilt (he gave her an adequate tip, but feels uncomfortable about her situation anyway, and worries that she does not *feel* she has been treated fairly.....) He feels "stuck with her" -- he is affected, at a very deep and personal level, by her being buried in the median. Her plight becomes his own...... --Pamela Ryan (pryan@prairienet.org) By semi-popular demand, here's not so much an analysis as an explanation of possible sources for the images in my dream "The Waitress and Her Bodily Fluids" from, I think, Issue 2. >>part one: Keith's home and he doesn't like MST3K<< Yeah, I think Val hit it on the head--I really miss Keith (he and Lyle and I are very close) and I know that when I see him again, the relationship we had will be gone. I also know that it won't be dead- -everybody changes. Even if he hadn't joined the USAF, our relationship would have changed. This feeling of loss is evident in the image of the five of us sitting around the table like doofuses. We don't know what to do. Also, it's reflected in the idea that where Lyle and I love MST3K, Keith doesn't. Our tastes have taken different paths. The last time Keith visited (about a year ago) he was running around constantly, spending time with as many people he could, trying to soak them up for his long trip abroad. That desparation permeated our household. Also, at the time, I was working full time 3rd shift, so whenever I was awake, I wasn't good for much. To quote Ergo the Magnificent, "We had no time." Earlier this week, I sent him a videotape with a few MST3K episodes. We'll find out once and for all if he really does like the show or not. >>Running to the diner<< For some reason, the image that most grabs me from this section are the little patches of snow all over with ice as a sort of "Magic Shell" topping. I suppose I might have drawn a little comfort from the atmosphere of this section--I don't like really warm days, and jacket weather or cooler is my favourite. The row of Chinese elm separates our property from our neighbours to the east, whom we don't really get along with, but we coexist thanks to the trees (see Frost). Why Lyle and I decided to cross that border is unknown to me at this time. It could be a break with tradition or thumbing our noses at authority (a happy pasttime). The fact that it was just Lyle and myself without the others could be a reflection of how close we got since our third half is gone. The mash of Wausau (my "hometown") with Stevens Point (my normal residence) and the academic buildings with residential homes could be a sort of displacement. I don't really belong anywhere and have yet to establish myself at any location. >>The Waitress and her bodily fluids<< I'm still not grossed-out by this dream. The fact that outside is a "washed-out, pastel morning" means early--about 5 am or so. There was nobody else in the diner. One of the papers on our table was a roadmap, and we were on our way somewhere. The waitress. I worked at a family-owned restaurant for four years, and really got to know the lot of the waitress--as much as I could without actually being one. I'm a good listener, and heard many stories from all of them over the years. As such, I have a great respect for anyone who can stand that job for any length of time. I real life, whenever I go to a restaurant, I try to tip well, but my mathematical ability is nil ("...a tip should be 15%--or is it 20, now?") so I always squirm when it comes time to figure it out. I usually just overtip, as evidenced in my $1 tip for $1.15 tab. It could be four years of experience with waitresses as human beings that prompted the anxiety of the woman in my dream. I was really worried about her--first that I messed up the tip (I hate insulting people I don't know), then that there was something really wrong (evil things happened to a few of the women I worked with). Now the fun part. Val, you said I sounded like I felt guilty or shameful as I described my drinking her bodily fluids. That wasn't it. In the dream, the bodily fluids were more of an afterthought. I was more concerned with the waitress--what happened to me was secondary. It could have been a test (I've been tested before) of my sincerity--vomit, diseased and menstrual blood are all pretty undesirable fluids in this time. To drink the impossible drink? She tells me what I'm drinking and I take it in stride, even drinking a little more of it with full knowledge of what it is. Immediately after that, I'm outside. I've seen bits of me partially buried before, and you'll all get one of the stranger of those dreams this week or next. However, unlike the waitress, I was able to break out of the ground and walk away... This dream could be a flag to watch out for. At the time, I had a few homework assignments piling up and a feeling of "AAAAAHHHH!!" creeping in. Keith figures a lot into my dreams (hey, at least I have him on one plane or another), as do my techniques of dealing with people. I have strange dreams, and death figures prominantly into almost all of them. This could have just been a weird dream, as you said, Val. It also could have been a warning to double-check the next time I find myself drinking a cup of warm applesauce... --BJH (hi205436@spstmail.uwsp.edu) ======Rattlesnake Garden-Issue 4========================================== The plants made me think of babies, offspring. Are you thinking about whether to have children or not? I also got the feeling that the driverless car could symbolize your feelings about your marriage. --Jay E. Vinton (jev@cu.nih.gov) ======Dream Snippets-Issue 4============================================== This dream has rich imagery, and evoked many feelings in me as I read. My strongest reaction was to the death of the small boy. If this had been my dream, I might guess that I was acutely aware of growing up and facing adult challenges: The CHILD is at first with me, then it is neglected and lost (my family is upset by this -- families must always read just as children grow into adults and assume new roles), then finally the child is killed, "railroaded" ? ..... Interestingly, the dream takes place in a collegiate/industrial environment, and when I initially entrust the child to the grandmother, it is because I have business (adult stuff) to attend to. The Chinese dragon / Japanese students situation strikes me as a symbol of old traditions and illusions, or childhood fantasies (mythical dragon) collapsing when confronted with real people with current concerns..... ALIENS IN THE WALKMAN Wow -- this dream is really bizarre! I'm having trouble feeling an overall connection to this one, so I'll just suggest associations to some of the images. Aliens: Outsiders, or feeling like an outsider Walkman: Sends messages to your ears/head. Active (walk man). A man who is walking, or walking away? Flood: Feeling inundated with work, or overwhelmed with emotion. Purple: Blending of male and female colors (pink/blue). Outrageousness Writing utensils: Send messages. Hanging up: cutting off connection (in this case, to old friends) Gilligan's Island: A place of isolation from the rest of the world. Actually, now that I write all this down, it does suggest a common theme of isolation/alienation (perhaps being _overcome_? ... since Gilligan's island is _found_?) --Pam Ryan (pryan@prairienet.org) (Again, sorry about forgetting to include this last time --Chris (just shoot me) Beattie) ======Val's Dream Series Parts 1 & 2-Issues 4 and 5======================= I am struck by the difference between BJ and the other dream characters. The others are just thinking of good times, going out in the fields, carrying on in the dance club, but BJ seems to have more serious things on his mind, getting Val's attention with the music, rescuing Val from the bee, talking with Val rather than dancing. --Jay E. Vinton (jev@cu.nih.gov) ======Hasta La Vista!-Issue 5============================================= This dream seemed to me to be a re-evaluation of your current situation involving relationships. Perhaps you want to start up a new relationship...like at the end of the dream where you were thinking of the potential benefits of getting remarried, but you are dissuaded by the way your marriage to your ex-husband turned out. Maybe there has been someone else in your life that you are attracted to, but you are afraid of the relationship turning out wrong. (This is my first attempt at a commentary. My own dreams have very shallow symbolism, and are fairly easy for me to interpret, so I may have problems with the more complex dreams most other people seem to have.) --Chris Beattie (cbeattie@uwspmail.uwsp.edu) This dreams seems to be a healthy re-affirmation of the dreamer's choice to be independent of her ex-husband. Does the number 14 have any special significance for you, or remind you of anything in particular? --Pamela Ryan (pryan@prairienet.org) There must have been a reason why you loved him in the start to marry him and so I'd say that the dream is showing that you may still miss that to some extent but then reassure yourself that you made the right choice by rejecting those desires for a second time. That is, on the balance of things you are better off without him but there was some attraction. --Matthew Parry (mettw@newt.phys.unsw.edu.au) I believe, in this dream, you are making sure you know what you want and are sticking by it with no regrets. It's obvious to me that you feel you made the right decision in divoricing the "emotional bully." This dream was reaffirming your self-esteem and independence with the knowledge that you are better than your ex--he's the one that needs to have someone to make himself complete, not you. Keep celebrating your freedom! --Val, the Dream Shaman (ka109016@spstmail.uwsp.edu) ======Egg-Issue 5========================================================= I'm not sure what to make of this dream. It sounds like the kind of dream I would have after I had seen a biology documentary when I was too tired. The early part of the dream had you trying to play pool, but every time you tried to hit the ball, it didn't work. Maybe you were feeling some frustration over not being able to reach some goal you were striving for in waking life. You also asked about nightmares other people have had. I've created a new section in the newsletter, called questions and answers, where I will give you my answer to your question. --Chris Beattie (cbeattie@uwspmail.uwsp.edu) This dream is so complex that I have trouble getting a handle on it. Perhaps it would help me if I restated the dream in less-complex terms: I am playing a game. I am repeatedly blocked from playing. An item of key importance is stuck. Something is deflated and dysfunctional. I have a violent reaction to a piece of fruit. I am deluged with too many things at once. I am told that I must treat things in a gentler way. When shown an exercise vehicle, I toss junk food on it. I suggest using an egg in the game, as a joke. A woman asks whether the egg is edible; I say it is hard boiled. Inside the egg is a half-developed human. A very large egg at my parents' contains many half-developed humans. One of the half-developed humans is within me -- I want it out. I am made sick by all of this. A few associations: -Fruit and eggs are both strongly associated with fertility, for me. -"Hard-boiled" makes me think of a person who is "hardened" to life. -When I contemplate the parental egg-image, it makes me think of my own life, where some things that my parents did while bringing me up may have, in fact, stunted my growth and left me "half-developed." -The game could be the "Game of Life" -- there are ways in which I feel frustrated, when trying to enjoy the Game of Life. Sometimes, I get stuck. Sometimes, I don't have the proper tools to succeed. Sometimes, life "throws too many things at me, at once..." -One issue I must address is my own emotional reaction to the Game: sometimes I get angry and violent, and lash out at sweet things that could actually nourish me. --Pamela Ryan (pryan@prairienet.org) I got a lot of associations with this dream. There are both Universal symbols and personal symbols in it for me... COMMENTARY PART ONE: Playing "Pool" First off, the playing of pool, the difficulty of hitting the balls into the pockets, balls turning into soft volleyballs, then into fruit, etc. all deal with "playing the game of life" or playing with life. Nothing seems to go right, or at least not as you'd expect it to be. There are surprises at every turn and every go. But this game gets you frustrated. It seems you have no control. The one "firm" ball you found turned out to be mandarin (fruit is nice, yes, but not when you are looking for something long lasting.) Perhaps you are tired of the "game"of relationships (both friendships and lovers) you may have played. Everytime one seems to be the right one, it turns out to be just as brief as the others. This causes a lot of frustration in us all. Plus, Universally, the symbol of fruit represents passion and sex. Both are fleeting, but true love is solid and lasting. It seems to me you've had enough of "playful" flirtations and are trully looking for this type of stability. The "balls" in your dream could be a symbol of human testicles, but I'm not gonna go too deep into that. Someone _did_ say you "have to be gentle with them"... Could it be you've been a bit too forceful? Perhaps forceful due to frustration and anger over things not going as well as planned? This part of the dream could've been telling you to take things easy--on others and yourself. COMMENTARY PART TWO: The Egg and the Dead Fetuses When you put an egg on the table as a "joke" I believe that, perhaps in the past, you did not take life very seriously. The egg has long been a Universal symbol of life and new growth. With the woman asking you if it was "edible"--I believe she might've been attempting to bring your attention to how fragile it is. But you tell her (because it's hard-boiled) that "I didn't think so." Yet, hard-boiled or not, an egg is digestable. When you "crack the side of one" you are testing the boundaries and exploring this "life." You have to see what's inside. The discovery of the big egg "full of row after row of dead, undeveloped chicken foetuses" is disturbing because these fetuses are "undeveloped"--a representation of sudden death, killing off what could've grown. Yet, what I find most interesting, is that the fetus you found in the one hard boiled egg you had was half-developed, which seems a whole lot more than the "undeveloped" ones in the big egg at your parent's house. Perhaps this was symbolic of breaking away from the image of what your parents had in their relationship. You want something different and/or better. You bury the relationship that didn't grow into the big egg "graveyard" at your parent's house. Yet, before you move on, you "started pulling one out of (your) mouth"--an image of "giving birth" to a new relationship or starting over. But, again, you are impatient, you want things to be better NOW. COMMENTARY PART THREE: Another "Two Guys and Some Woman" With the image of the residue of the shell in your mouth, I assume you might be having a hard time dealing with clearing up your past. I also noticed a connection with this part of the dream with the first. There is another "two guys and some woman", but this time you're not "playing" with them. You are doing your best not to disturb or interupt them. Did this fill you with fear? Are you experiencing disruption with these people in real life? Is there something you feel responsible for? Perhaps you might want to confront these people and get this, bad, nauseating residue out of your (and their) system. Since I don't know you personally, I do not know your connection to Steve, Dave C., and Fiona. Forgive me if I might be a little off in my assumptions. As for your worry that one of your front teeth might fall out (now, you scholars out there correct me if I'm wrong, but...), that is an old Freudian image of the fear of castration and could be you are punishing yourself for not having what you desire (whether it is sexual or not is your business). Then again, it might have nothing to do with the dream. It just was emphasizing your fears and disgust about those dead fetuses. --Val, the Dream Shaman (ka109016@spstmail.uwsp.edu) __________________________________________________________________________ Dreams ======The Death of the President========================================== I am teaching at a school. The atmosphere is very relaxed and informal. I am aware that "The President" (NOT Clinton, but just some ambiguous Presidential figure) is dead, but I do not want to share this with the students for some reason. I go outside and see a handsome African American man, sitting on the ground, looking saddened. "Do you know?" he asks me. "Yes," I reply, thinking that he is referring to the President's death. But in fact, he was upset only by his knowledge that the President was gravely ill -- when I tell him of his death, he becomes inconsolable. We drive around for a while with a third person, and then return to the school. Almost all of the students are gone. A little girl meets us at the front of the school and tells us that the students were sent home because of the President's death. --Pamela Ryan (pryan@prairienet.org) ======Hummingbirds===================================================== === Between final exams and work, I've been too stressed lately to remember any dreams. The two dreams I put in this issue are the first dreams I've remembered in two weeks. I had them both in the same night. I was walking along a trail that was very narrow and had some crushed rotten granite for a base. I enjoyed the sound the gravel made when it crunched under foot. The trail was under a high power line, and I had turned around to head back the way I had come after reaching a sign saying not to go any farther. I was headed toward a country highway which was fairly busy. The area seemed to match an area near my parents house, just north of a winding country road in the woods, near a large gravel quarry, only there was no gravel quarry. I heard a very loud buzzing behind me, and I turned to see two hummingbirds hovering at eye level about fifteen feet away. I thought of them as hummingbirds, but they looked like flickers (related to woodpeckers) flying hummingbird style. --Chris Beattie (cbeattie@uwspmail.uwsp.edu) ======At My Work Computer, Counting Rejections============================ Val and I were in the basement of the library at the University, working at one of the computers in the room I work in there, although we weren't at my workstation. We were working on putting together Electric Dreams (We really had been working on it just before I went to bed). We had come with all sorts of stuff, music and munchies, and planned to be holed up for most of the day. We started out in the morning (we usually put this together at night), and I remember feeling very awake and refreshed. Val was typing, so I entertained myself by looking at my calendar. I had written down how many times a girl named Tara had asked our friend BJ out for a date. (Tara is a girl who attended the same university Val and BJ and I do. She annoyed us all, and we believed she did have a crush on BJ, although she never asked him out.) I had also written down how many times BJ had turned her down, which had been every time she asked. The total was nine. --Chris Beattie (cbeattie@uwspmail.uwsp.edu) ======The Orange Kitten (Not named by author)============================= Well, I just had a dream last night that I remember in great detail. It's very strange, but it's also very cool. Here it is: And my dream opens to the scene... There's a new addition to the Quaroni family! It's a cute little kitten! I don't know how I got it or anything, but as the dream started, I had just gotten a cute little kitten who was as playful as can be. Some time passed, and it seemed like there was yet another cat under my roof. This kitten was an amazing shade of orange. It was, in fact, almost as orange as an orange. (It looked sorta like Technicolor) I thought this one was a kitten (And I'm sure it was), but it was almost full size. I had a little sand-filled doll of my other kitten (Which was a medium-sized kitten by now), and I showed it to the orange one. The orange kitten immediately took a swing at it and knocked it off of the table! I tried several more times to see if it would like the doll, but it always attacked it. I know this is normal, but something about this orange kitten really seemed evil. I guess that's why I showed it the doll before I showed it the real kitten. I decided to give the orange kitten away, but suddenly.... The scene changed. It was night time in a forest. I guess I was at a scene of Beverly Hills 90210. I don't watch the show, but I know who the characters are. The scene was shot from up in the trees above a small camp site. I was where the camera should have been. Brandon and some female forest ranger walked into the site and started clearing away dirt. They somehow cleared a small patch (There was something dark underneath the dirt. I couldn't tell what it was, though) to sit on, AND... I was suddenly Brandon. I wanted to make a fire, so I found two pieces of metal (One of them was a spoon), and I started hitting them together. Sparks flew off of them, and soon we had a fire. I went back to the top view, where Brandon and the ranger were curled up in a ball. The ranger said that these outer trails weren't open to the public yet because they were dangerous right now. Then something happened and... The scene cut to a view from the ground. The ranger looked around and said a bone was coming in or something, and she gave the exact distance... I looked up towards the trees, and... I was Brandon again. The ranger was gone, and I went over to the fire. I found a Zippo lighter, and picked it up. I started running away from the camp site, my only light source this little lighter (The bone exploded near me). I suddenly realized that I had a flashlight in my hand, so I started using that as well. Pretty soon I came up to a road with a stop sign, and I realized that I was going the wrong way. Whatever was trying to kill me was close now. I turned around and started running the other way when... I was in the back seat of a car. My parents were in the front seat. We were in the middle of a city, and then suddenly we were out in the country. We were going someplace when.... I was a woman, and I was pregnant. It was winter time and I was outside. I was near my apartment, and I was walking home with my husband. I think this part of the dream had come up before, because I remember being this person before. I knew that this was not my first time being pregnant. We walked along a snowy path, and down some stairs where our landlord was. She was shoveling at the bottom and didn't want me to walk down the stairs, but I did anyway. We continued on, and we passed by a window. I guess we knew the people inside because they asked my how many kids we had. I looked towards my husband because I didn't know. He used his fingers to say that this was the eleventh. The people inside were pretty impressed when... I was inside the doorway of that apartment with a cage in my hand. In the cage was the cute little kitten. I was trying to get it to enter the apartment, and that's all I remember... Some fragments of other things popped up while I was typing this, but they were very short, and I don't know where to place them. I don't usually ask for analysis, but I'd like it now. This entire dream probably isn't going to be published, so if you'd like the whole thing (Preferably to analyze), please tell me and I will send it to you. I also talked to my girlfriend about this dream later on, and she said that she thought the part where I was a pregnant woman was a past life. Now I want to go and get hypnotized to see if this is true... (C: --Daniel Quaroni (goat@pelican.cit.cornell.edu) "Another day, another hundred thousand dollars" ======Searching for Lights (not named by author)========================= Greetings, everyone. I am the owner of the "falling horse dream" some of you may remember. I appreciate everyone's comments - they helped quite a bit. I had two dreams that I remember Sunday night. I can't quite see a connection, but here they are. The first dream began with me in my apartment, in the present. I was sleeping and I heard a noise, so I tried to turn on the light next to my bed. I was blinking and rubbing my eyes, but my vision seemed bleary and impaired somehow, as if I was looking through a blindfold. The light didn't go on. I stumbled out of bed and searched for another light, and turned it on. I kept rubbing my eyes and became more and more anxious, as if I needed desperately to see. I was afraid of the noise, afraid there was someone else in my house and I wanted to see, but couldn't. Each light I turned on either didn't work, or it didn't help. My eyes seemed covered with the grayness or speckels of light you get when you rub your eyes. The apartment turned into a large house (that I didn't recognize) and I kept running through the rooms, frantically searching for lights and flipping them on, but they didn't work and I couldn't see. Finally I woke up. ------ I can think of some obvious interpretations--I am trying to understand or "see" something, but emotionally or psychologically I'm being blocked--and I wonder if the theory that dreaming about a house = dreaming about your own psyche has any merit. Wasn't that Freud? --Karen Frazer (karen@is.internic.net) ======Having a Baby (not named by author)================================ Second dream: I am in a hospital, on a bed. I am pregnant, about to have a baby, in fact. I look around and see my mother on the next bed over. I have tubes all around me and lots of machinery, but I realize that there are no nurses or doctors in the room and I am not in labor. I look at my mom and she sort of pats my hand with a "there, there". I ask her what happened--where's my baby?--and she says it was a false alarm, it was just pains, not labor. I begin to cry. I feel such love for this baby, so proud, I want to have the baby really badly and to see it and love it (the feeling was VERY strong in the dream). She tells me about a friend of mine having a baby in the other room, who is apparently having lots of complications and horrible surgery. I become sort of frightened, and I wonder out loud what will happen to me, when will I have my baby, will it be OK. My mother turns to me and gives me a stern, critical look and says "Well, it IS all your fault. You were too negative...you haven't taken care of yourself...you didn't really want this baby...see, now you don't have it...." and otherwise going on about how I'm a terrible person and mother and not having the baby yet is all my fault. I begin to cry again and I wake up. ------ I've had dreams where I was pregnant before, but not like this one! Incidentially I have a good relationship with my mother now, but didn't in the past (partially because she used to say things like that). I also have another older dream that I'll send to the list. --Karen Frazer (karen@is.internic.net) **.Sig omitted to save space.** ======Getting Home - 5/2/94=============================================== I'm hiding in the doorway of an old museum, half undressed. I was planning intercourse with a woman I was walking with but she was scared and ran across the street to an old restaurant where there was a person in the window. Then there are people sitting at long tables in the street. Some are looking at me. Before that we were walking up a hill and I crossed a street full of running water. Then she came across. Before that, a woman (not sure whether it was the same woman or not) gave me a ride home from a meeting, along a long twisting suburban road. Finally we get to their house. Quite a large rich looking house. There are some kids there and her husband. We can't figure out their address for the longest time, so I can't call up to get a ride home. There are some planes floating on tethers in the sky, like blimps. One of three girls is doing the splits. Jay E. Vinton (jev@cu.nih.gov) **.Sig omitted to save space.** ======Circular Theory===================================================== ** Note from Chris: BJ (and neglected to include a title, so I named this after the short story that resulted from the dream) Dream 24 July 1992 Morpheus pulled a good one last night. This is the second year in a row I've found a pile of human bones up here at the cabin, only this time they were my own. I started out by the tennis courts by Oak Island Park--it was a moist night and I watched the July 4 fireworks exploding in the sky in front of me. I was wearing dark jeans and a heavy dress shirt and I had my map case [in which I carry two small notebooks, one black and one red] over my shoulder. The drizzle got heavier, so I moved into the park to my left, passing the tennis courts. The fireworks were still in the sky as I approached a night-time baseball game and took refuge under a twisted weeping willow. Its branches drooped low from the moderate trunk and formed a cozy enclosure that shielded me from the rain. Under the tree, the ground was damp and mossy. I watched the baseball game with little interest and the fireworks with little more. Then I chanced to look down. My food was an inch away from the leg of a human skeleton that lay half-buried in the ground. The whole skeleton was slightly nestled in the moss--naturally; it hadn't been buried there--and hidden by the tree. Crouching over my find, I crept toward the skull and pulled it from the dirt and moss. There was a fist-sized chunk of spongy lichen inside, but the skull was whole. No cracks or anything. Off to my right, the kid said, "Who could it be, do you think?" He was about eight or nine, with black hair, dark brown eyes and dark skin. He called himself by some stereotypical Native American name like "Little Running Fox (or) Bear (or) something". He wore a thin, blue bandana around his head. I liked him. He was a good friend, and bright for his age. Examining the skeleton once more, I saw a square of oiled canvas embedded in the ground near its right hip. I pried it up--it was a map case like mine. Inside the map case, I found two small notebooks, and my stomach dropped. Pulling out the water-damaged, black covered notebook, I opened it to a page of my writing. I swallowed, undid the snaps on my own map case and withdrew the black notebook, turning to the same page. They were identical. "Omigod..." I said. "It's me. I died last year. Come on; we have to get these to the police or something." We stuffed the skull into his backpack and I put the second black notebook in my map case. Leaving the rest of the skeleton there, we dashed up to the road. The only vehicle was a city bus that we managed to flag down in the dark. The kid was the first one on, but I dropped my 35 cents on the road and had to reach under the bus to get the quarter. The door almost closed on me, but I got on, dropped the quarter in and joined the kid in back. There were maybe two other people on the bus. The kid and I didn't say much. I was too busy thinking. I knew now that I had been dead for the past year. But in that year, I had gone to school; raised my GPA! I'd taken jobs and visited folks. So what did that make me? I wasn't a ghost or anything, but I had discovered my own skeleton--even without the proof I knew it was mine. I took the black notebooks out of my map case. The contents of both of them were almost identical--the only difference was that the one from the skeleton was water-damaged and some of the ink had run or blotched. Also, as I flipped through both of them, I noticed that the damaged one was missing anything I had written in the past year. It was creepy. It was daylight when we pulled into the bus "station", which was really just an old warehouse out away from everywhere. The bus driver, a couple of regular passengers and some of the station's workers were there, for a total of five plus the two of us. The bus, apparently, was staying. The kid and I tried to explain that we had to get to the police or home or something because we had found my remains. They of course didn't believe us, even when I showed them the notebooks. It was frustrating, but we finally got some sort of transportation to town. We did a lot of cross-town walking before we made it to a quick stop at Bill's Fine Food & Lounge [the restaurant I had worked at for 4 years] and then home. I was in our basement (a couple of days later, I would assume) near the bottom of the stairs. It was the old layout, before we built my room down there. Someone came to tell me that the police had checked dental records and they had done a clay reconstruction of my face on the skull. The remains were undoubtedly mine, and nobody had an explanation why. The dream journal I took this from is the red notebook from my map case. This dream was a really puzzling one within itself, but loads of fun out here in the real world. I used it as the basis of one of my short stories. Without referring to the journal entry, I used the idea and constructed a basic plot and a few characters to go with it. I changed a little bit so it made sense, but when I finally did look at the entry, I was amazed at how much of the actual dream I had kept. --BJH (hi205436@spstmail.uwsp.edu) ======Val's Serial Dream================================================= Dream Series: "I'm Death, BJ's the Crow, and We Hunt Down A Serial Killer" VMK DREAM JOURNAL ENTRY #80 Vol.5, March 21, 1994 Part Three: "The Intruder" We get to BJ's "safe" dorm room. It was night when we walked there, but suddenly it got to be mid-day once we got inside his room. He was still the Crow and I was still Death. We were laughing, too, and BJ started to say something like, "My eyeliner is eating into my eyes, Val! I'm gonna get racoon eyes!" He then asked me if I could loan him my ankh, but I wasn't sure if I should. I only let him touch it and he got "sparked" by static. The phone rang and he answered it. Suddenly BJ gets this awful, tired look on his painted Crow face. "It's Brandon*," he moaned, "should I let him know you're---" He was cut off by a knock at the door. "Should I answer it?" I asked and we both just looked at each other, frightened. The knocking got persistant and annoying, louder, too. So I decided to be the brave one and answered the door. The person on the other side was Brandon who was all dressed in white**. BJ hung up the phone and, lightning quick, grabbed the shotgun that was latched onto his back and aimed it at Brandon. Brandon just laughed at him, mockingly. "You think I'm scared?" He smiled, "Do you really believe I'm scared of you and that thing? That gun probably isn't even loaded--my dick can beat your gun--by a full twelve inches!" BJ wasn't moved by Brandon's words. I was angry. I told Brandon to get the hell out and BJ put away his shotgun, sat back, and laughed at Brandon. I calmed down. Next thing I knew, I was sorting through BJ's CDs (I like his music and looking through them is like walking through a library--full of new and old interesting stuff). Behind me BJ and Brandon are talking. Brandon's still claiming he's "so great" and "so much bigger" than BJ. BJ laughs a lot and doesn't seem to care. I remember one exchange vividly: BRANDON: You have no guts, BJ, and you're pathetic! You wouldn't know how to kill somebody if your life depended on it... BJ: That's funny, my life doesn't depend on killing. It depends on saving and surviving. You'd rather waste your life blowing things up til there's nothing left of you or anyone... BRANDON: Oh, really? ...And what is there to save and protect? Open yer eyes, BJ! We're all living a lie! Tote around your gun if it makes you feel better, it's just a symbol of the power you'll never have. BJ: But it's more than a symbol, isn't it? You want it, don't you? That's why you're making such a fuss! Well, Val gave it to me and you can't have it back! Funny thing is, I don't remember giving either one of them a "gun." I ignored the rest of the exchanges between them, devoting all of my attention to the CDs. I picked out Queen's "Inneuendo", but when I put it into the machine to play, "Get Out of My Mind" by Dynamix played. This made me feel more comfortable. Brandon continued to talk about how "manly" and "fertile" he was but no one cared. BJ and I ignored him. Soon, there were more knocks at BJ's door. I went to answer them. I let in a bunch of mine and BJ's friends: Tara, Tim, Tom, Jeff, Amy, Chris, Julie, and Robin. This whole group ignored Brandon, too, til he just sort of "popped" out of existance like a fragile soap bubble. Just before I woke up, I had twilight images of seeing him dead in a coffin. No one was there at his funeral. I almost felt guilty and was going to go see him, but heard BJ and Chris call my name so I turned away because they were alive. I'd rather be around the living. The dead make poor company. When I woke, I found myself wishing Brandon had died, but I don't have the hate to really do so. *Brandon was a friend I lost. He cut me off for no reason, without warning. It was a shock to me. This was a friend who had been always around and I looked up to him. Later on I found out he had messed around with a girl. He turned out to not be the person I thought he was. He must've fore-seen this, otherwise he wouldn't have left the way he did. I loathe him now. **Brandon is always void of "colour" in my dreams. He is always white. I hate white because it's too bright and there's not much depth in it. I like colour. Colour represents life to me. He's a ghost, all dressed in white--like Casper!--in my dreams. --Valentina Kaquatosh (ka109016@spstmail.uwsp.edu) __________________________________________________________________________ Dream Project Here is the next part to the dream project I have started. Last week, I put in one week's worth of dreams from one of our mailing list members. Our job was to try to describe this person's personality based on the dreams. Here are the answers I got. You seem to me to be a calm person to me. Someone who likes to take things slowly. In your dreams, you described the calm you felt even when you had missed your plane, and you were in no rush to pack even though you were late. In another, you were embroidering, and another involved gardening, both things that take a lot of patience. I also think you tend to feel rushed or pushed by other people. In the airplane/packing dream, your family is rushing you, pushing you into something you intend to do at your pace, but it isn't good enough for them. In another dream, your car was rear-ended; again, you were pushed by someone. The rattlesnake dream involved being stopped by a police officer; and you were worried about getting in trouble for not conforming to the rules and expectations of the police officer, and maybe even society. --Chris Beattie (cbeattie@uwspmail.uwsp.edu) The dreams suggested to me that She is a shy person and from the dreams on May 15 and 18 seem to show that she worries a bit about wanting to have children (well thats what it suggests to me! I'll explain why for you if you want). --Matthew Parry (mettw@newt.phys.unsw.edu.au) I believe this person had a lot of troubles with family pressures. In the first dream they are upset and frantic at her, but she doesn't seem to know or care what all the fuss is about. She seems to be leading her own life and takes things one at a time, "neatly" like the folding of her clothes. She also seems to be hard at work to "clean up" what her family has "jumbled up" in their hurry to see her off on her destination. Perhaps she was one of those children who was pushed by her family to be the best in everything, the one with the bright future. When she did not turn out to be what her parents expected of her, they were upset and may still be trying to influence/manipulate her and remake her into the girl (I assume she's a woman) that they wanted her to be. It seems like she is quite happy being her own person and doing her own thing HER OWN way. The car accident in the second dream reminded me of sudden change and death. Being locked in a school with her sister might mean this lady and her sister may have something in their past they must face once again and learn from. But confronting this shared past is difficult and both are unwilling to face and be done with it. Does she get along with her sister? I think so. But I do believe they have their share of differences like all of us. The two of them (taking the accident into consideration) might have shared ups-and-downs. Perhaps in real life something happened that "rear-ended" them both back into their girl school days and now they are working together to get things back to normal. It would be interesting to find out of this person has Lap lineage. This third dream could even be a scene from a past life or it could be she is living out the fantasy of being a Lap in a snowy place, working on a new, beautiful, blue dress. Symbolically, the embroidering reminds me of detailed, careful work. It gives me the impression that she is a person who pays attention to detail and is decorative with her style of dress and living. This fourth dream made me feel like the relationship she has with her husband is full of potential new growth, but the two don't know where to start. They may share the same dreams and make the same plans, but they need guidence and direction. Without it she may feel their relationship might fail. That would be hard on both. They both seem enthusiastic. The flying dream represented freedom, adventure, and confidence. I bet she likes to cut loose and party when she can. She enjoys life. The last dream was interesting. I believe she accepts, appreciates, and is confident in her sexuality. She takes pleasure in her body. She is not ashamed or too shy. She realizes sex is a part of life and it is a beautiful thing. --Val, the Dream Shaman (ka109016@spstmail.uwsp.edu) Okay, so how close did we come? If you want to see how much of your personality comes through in your dreams, you can still send me a small collection of your dreams (say a weeks worth) and we'll see what we can do. __________________________________________________________________________ Dream Articles ======The Science in Dreamcraft=========================================== The last few issues have featured articles by Valentina, the Dream Shaman, involving Dreamcraft and Magick rituals. I tend to be very scientifically minded, and find the term "Magick" to be intimidating, and I am prejudiced against reading articles with that word in them. After reading Val's articles and talking with her, however, I have come to the conclusion that most of the "Magick" is simply science in disguise. In fact, to be perfectly fair, many of the magickal beliefs existed long before the scientific applications came into being. Here are some examples of the science in the Magick, based on Val's article from last week. 1. Dream Potions: Several potions were provided in the last issue, to improve dream recall, and to help you dream of particular things. For simplicity, I will use the hot, consumable potions for examples. Each potion has its own odor and flavor. Now, when someone concentrates on dreams while smelling and consuming these potions, the potion becomes a mental focus. You begin to associate the odor and flavor with your dreams. It helps you concentrate on your goal of remembering dreams, or dreaming about particular things. It isn't necessarily that the ingredients cause you to remember dreams, but that the odor and flavor cause you to concentrate on your dreams. (There is also the fact, mentioned by Val, that the potions will cause you to wake up in the middle of the night to stop at the bathroom, which gives you a better chance of remembering more dreams) 2. Dream Fetishes: These are just like the potions. You associate the object with dreaming, and it reminds you to think about dreaming. 3. Recitation: Just another way to focus your concentration on dreams. Here is the Magickal ritual, boiled down to its mundane, scientific bases. Imagine this. You are getting ready to go to bed. You've gone through your nightly routine, washed, dressed, whatever, and your mind is set (we hope) on sleeping. Rather than plunging straight from waking to sleeping, you take a little time to unwind, to clear your mind of all the things you have been thinking of all day. You make yourself a cup of tea (your dream potion), using a flavor you only drink when you are getting ready to sleep. While you are relaxing, your mind cleared of other thoughts, you take the time to think about dreaming. There are no other thoughts to distract you. You also take the time to look at or handle some object (your dream fetish) that you only really look at when you are ready for bed, and are thinking about dreaming and your intent to remember and influence your dreams. You finish your tea, which you've been sipping leisurely, and have had time (five, ten, fifteen minutes) to actively think about dreaming. Now ready for bed, you state out loud your intention (verbal recitation or prayer) to remember/influence your own dreams. These all work better than just telling yourself to remember dreams before you go to bed. You take the time to concentrate on your dreams, make it a major issue right before bed. You use smell, taste (the potion), touch, sight (the fetish), and sound (the verbal recitation) to focus on your goal, rather than just making a mental post-it note. It seems fairly logical and scientific to me. Opinions anyone? Chris Beattie (cbeattie@uwspmail.uwsp.edu) ======Dream Pillows====================================================== The following are a lot of fun to make and to give as gifts. DREAM PILLOW Rose Petals two parts Lemon Balm two parts Costmary one part Mint one part Clove one part Lavender one part Sew up with white or silver thread on purple cloth into a small pillow. Decorate with lace, silk, embroider with designs, etc. according to your fancy. Sleep on it to have vivid dreams. (It smells great!) ASTRAL TRAVEL PILLOW Mugwort three parts Frankincense 1/2 part Vetivert two parts Sandalwood one part Rose Petals one part 1 pinch of ground Orris root 1 Vanilla bean, crushed Make into a small pillow of blue coloured cloth with yellow cotton thread. Sleep on it to promote astral travel during sleep. NOTE: After six months these pillows may lose their "fresh" scent. You can reuse them by emptying out the old contents and refilling them with new herbs. Easiest way to do this is to create a "pocket" within these pillows. Sew the pillows with an open fold that can be closed either by velcro or buttons. Also, to make it easier to sleep on, pad it with cotton or downy goose feathers. How it will look and feel is all up to you! --Val, the Dream Shaman (ka109016@uwspmail.uwsp.edu) ======Dream Bath Sachets================================================= There's nothing like a long hot bath after a hard day's nonsense! Here's some herbal bath recipies to ease the senses and prepare the body for sleep. NOTE: Each herbal bath sachet can be prepared in advance and saved til needed. Here are the instructions: 1. Add all ingredients into a mixing bowl. 2. Empower the herbs with your magickal goal. 3. Mix and grind the herbs. 4. Place a handful of the herbs into the center of a large square of cheesecloth (or simply use an old washcloth). 5. Fill up a clean tub with warm water. 6. Place your herbal sachet into the tub and let steep until water is coloured and scented. 7. Get into the tub and enjoy! *If you don't have a bathtub, or if you just prefer taking a shower, make up a sachet in a washcloth and scub your body with it. These bath sachets are for external use only. Make sure you are not allergic to any of these herbs or you'll be sorry. HERBAL DREAM BATH SACHET No. 1 (For Dream recall and awareness) Lemongrass three parts Thyme two parts Orange peel two parts Clove one part Cinnamon one part Carnation one part HERBAL DREAM BATH SACHET No. 2 (For Divinatory Dreams) Thyme three parts Yarrow two parts Rose two parts Nutmeg one part Lavender one part Patchouly one part HERBAL DREAM BATH SACHET No. 3 (For Peaceful Sleep) Catnip two parts Hops two parts Jasmine one part Elder flowers one part **Let me know how these recipes are. Does anyone else out there have any from their family archives or from books? Zap 'em out to me or Chris and we can really make this a sharing experience! --Val, the Dream Shaman (ka109016@uwspmail.uwsp.edu) __________________________________________________________________________ Questions and Answers *My question for everyone is what is the worst nightmare you have ever had? --Matthew Parry (mettw@newt.phys.unsw.edu.au) It seems to me the my worst nightmare is always the most recent one I've had. I would like to submit two dreams as being my worst nightmares. 1. This dream seemed especially bad because it was so real. It happened within the first week of my moving into a new apartment. I woke up when I heard a scraping noise in my bedroom. I opened my eyes a tiny bit, but it was very dark in the room. Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I could barely make out the shadowy shape of a man standing inside my room, right next to the window. He was looking around, and spotted me in my bed. I saw a large hunting knife clutched in one of his hands. He saw that I was awake, and rushed toward me, knife aimed at my throat. Then I woke up for real. 2. The most recent nightmare I've had was just bizarre. I think I had it because I had an infection in my throat at the time. There was some sort of cyst or something growing in my mouth. I tried to squeeze it out with my fingertips, but the inside of my mouth, especially my tongue, began to split down the middle as if it were made of dry rotted wood. It sealed itself up again and didn't hurt, but it scared me. --Chris Beattie (cbeattie@uwspmail.uwsp.edu) The worst nightmare I've ever had was a reoccuring dream in which I was married to the person I most hate--and in the dream I actually enjoyed being with him. The dream always ended with him tying a rope around my neck trying to strangle me. I'd try to get away and when I actually did, he'd beg for forgiveness and would start to cut off his limbs with a dull, rusty knife. After I had this dream for 27 nights in a row, I realized I actually liked the guy in real life after all and stopped hating him so much. We became good friends for many years until I started having dreams of him being dead (with me being the only one at his funeral and everyone else at the funeral were clones without faces). I had this dream for two weeks. It turned out the person really wasn't my friend, messed around with another girl, lied to me, and left with out a good-bye. Consequently, I don't like him anymore and I believe the dreams had been warning me that "You can be friends with a bastard, but don't ever trust 'em with your heart--he has nothing to lose, whereas you have everything to take." --Val, the Dream Shaman (ka109016@spstmail.uwsp.edu) *A question, what exactly do you mean by Dream Fetish? Is it aiding your dreaming or a source of dream desires? --Matthew Parry (mettw@newt.phys.unsw.edu.au) A Dream Fetish is an object that aids you in your dreaming. It is a mental focus as well as something to REPRESENT your dream desires. You provide the source of desire in your dreams. Check out Chris' article this week and see how our notes compare. --Val, the Dream Shaman (ka109016@spstmail.uwsp.edu) *My main interest is in lucid dreams and I am interested in talking with anyone who has used Dr. Laberge's DreamLight or other lucid dream inducement aids. --Tom Briscoe (tbriscoe@aoc.nrao.edu) *Have any of you had reoccuring themes or images in your dreams? What are some of your reoccuring themes/images and what do you feel these things have to say about you? --Val, the Dream Shaman (ka109016@spstmail.uwsp.edu) __________________________________________________________________________ See you all next week, and keep those posts coming in!