This dream maybe doesn't justify returning to the dream blog after nearly a year of absence, but whatever.
I was on a flat earth that was a life-sized version of a board game, suspended in deep space. The game board resembled a lightly wooded exterior, though it was apparent that the grass, rocks, paths, and trees were all laid on a totally flat surface. The first space on the trail started right outside a glowing cave that didn't seem accessible by a creature of my size.
I began strolling down the path, collecting small stones and searching the area for little bonus items that I might be able to use. As I walked, I could occasionally view myself from a birds-eye perspective, as a player of the game. After the first bend in the trail, I came across a blank tombstone with some freshly dug earth and decided to dig. As I was digging, I heard two voices chatting as they past me on the game path. I didn't want to fall behind too early, so I decided to give up on the dig and return to heading down the trail. I saw that the players that had passed me were Cat and Janelle. I sprinted to catch up, and I met up with them at the edge of the game board, which looked out into space.
Near us was a small building that we all decided to enter. It was a chapel lit only by candles. As Cat and Janelle explored the altar, I sat in the back pew. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had missed something in the grave I was digging up, and after a bit of resisting, I left the chapel and returned to the tombstone to continue digging. It wasn't long before I found a red rock that seemed special. Out of instinct, I returned to the beginning of the board where the cave was and saw that there was a hole in the cave entrance that was the same shape as my rock.
I walked up to the entrance and placed the rock in its special place, causing the door to open up. As I did so, a bus pulled up beside the cave and loads of kids with backpacks got off and started walking down the trail away from me. I entered the cave.
Lights dangled from the ceiling, swaying to a breeze that I could not feel. I walked across a rope bridge that stretched several hundred feet. Below me I could see signs of a civilization: tents, wagons, small shops, but no people. I paused on the bridge, closed my eyes, then reopened them. As I looked around, I saw hundreds of ghost-like people walking about. They were not translucent, but their faces were eggshell white, as were their ragged clothes and accessories (walking sticks, necklaces, hats, etc.).
Then I awoke in the middle of the night.
I returned to sleep and dreamt that I was walking in a sprawling city. The sky above me was such a thick fog that the buildings all disappeared into it, appearing to be endlessly tall. All these buildings were brown. I walked aimlessly for a while, then entered through the double glass doors of one of the buildings. I realized that I was carrying a basket containing a jersey, shorts, a headband and basketball shoes. I found a locker room and changed into the athletic gear, then made my way into a gymnasium.
I walked immediately onto the basketball court, shoes still untied, and began playing in what was an Indiana state tournament game for high school basketball. Most of the team I played with in real life was there as well. After a short while, we were victorious.
I left and wandered about the city with my basket of clothes, still wearing my jersey. I entered another building and realized it was a church that resembled Koontz Lake Missionary Church (where I attended during grade school). My Nord keyboard was setup onstage and I knew I was to play it. Norm was leading the band on guitar, and my brother Mike was on the drums. Some other people I didn't know were playing as well. I joined in midway through a song. I was playing pretty well, but for some reason I kept playing a high C note during the D chords, turning the chords into a D7, which wasn't appropriate for the song. I knew it was wrong but kept playing it.
After a couple other songs, my old high school friend Alik came and chatted with me. Apparently he was also on the basketball team and wanted to know when and where we were next going to play. I didn't know the answer.
I left and again wandered the brown, roofless city. I entered a burger joint and got in line. There I found other basketball teammates, Nathan and Brandon, and we talked about the last game and the one upcoming. We took our orders (the restaurant was famous for their green burgers). I saw a massive line forming behind us, so I bought an extra burger and fries in case another of our teammates walked in. Not long after we sat down, I saw Brandon's brother Shawn enter the back of the line. I wanted to let him know that I had already picked him up some food, but I couldn't get his attention. The place had become so crowded that I couldn't even move over to him. I tried yelling his name, but my calls did not reach him.
Then I awoke.
Thursday, September 6, 2018
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Dream #548 (October 13, 2017) - Halfway House and Cadet Society
How quickly dreams fade from memory.
In the first dream, I was wandering around a mid-sized city at night. I walked past apartment buildings, small parks, and a college, all lit with amber lights, making amber the only visible color. Finally, I arrived at a sort of halfway house for the severely depressed. It was a place where people could come and live communally with others suffering from depression, as well as counselors and caregivers. There were a lot of people walking about in pajama pants upon arrival, since it was late at night.
I walked up to the front desk and asked several questions about the place, out of curiosity (though they initially mistook me for an incoming patient). I then decided to donate several movies from my DVD collection (which I had with me in a backpack for some reason), including There Will Be Blood, The Departed, my Quentin Tarantino collection, among a few others. I'm not entirely sure why I thought such dark films were a good idea, but it seemed appropriate at the time.
I was excited about the work the place was doing. People there seemed happy. It was setup much like a hotel, with a general lobby and dining area in the center, and hallways lined with doors reaching out from the center. When I left, I immediate sought the company of my friends Matt K and Adam P (a friend from high school) and told them all about this place. Adam immediately decided he would donate a large set of rainbow umbrellas and blankets that he had stored near Koontz Lake in an old garage. We gathered these things (I remember thinking that these would make for good props for a stylized video shoot) and took them to the halfway house. They accepted this donation with great joy and had us set them up around a beach area they owned.
After finishing this task, I joined Matt and Adam in exploring the property a bit further. We saw only a few people as we walked down the various hallways. Finally we found a somewhat-hidden entrance to a basement, and we explored down there. We found some nursery areas and kids' playrooms, which had all the typical toys. Then we discovered the bathroom. There were pools of urine on the floor, and green slime crawling down the walls. The door jammed behind us and we couldn't get out the way we came in. We were fortunate that there was an open door on the other side, though unfortunate that we had to wade our way through the urine and unknown gunk to make our escape. I had the sudden urge to go to the bathroom, and did so in the toilet, though I'm sure it didn't matter where I went.
We finally emerged from the bathroom and made our way back up to the sandy beach. We discussed for a while how we could improve the living situation of the guest at the house.
Eventually I transitioned into a different dream.
I was living in some sort of cadet society. It was like a weird combination of military and farm life. We had a farm to attend, but also took part in rigorous military training. I was a younger version of myself, and everyone there was in their late teens. The leaders were all middle-aged, and they were also all quite cruel to everyone living there. The cadets had not volunteered to be there, and were instead something like slaves, for we didn't get paid for our work.
All the cadets slept in the same barn loft. We had only sleeping bags with no extra padding, and no area for privacy. There were a lot of goofy characters there, including a very scrawny kid who spoke quite highly of himself regarding his success at charming the ladies. There was another kid who was a pyromaniac, and enjoyed lighting fireworks and starting fires at inappropriate times (often getting the rest of us in trouble). I seemed to live out several sitcom-y episodes, though there was a much darker element to it (as if Hogan's Heroes actually portrayed a more realistic prison camp). There was a lot of racism among our leaders, and those among us with darker skin (including the pyromaniac) often got more severe punishments.
We, the cadets, were at last fed up with the way our leaders were treating us. They had their fancy house were they all had their own living spaces. They ate well while we ate terribly (many of us were malnourished). They enjoyed entertainment, while we had to creatively come up with ways to get our minds off of our living situation. But at least we had each other's company.
One among us was a combination of Chris Pratt and Ryan Gosling. He was the oldest of the cadets, nearly 20, and he was beloved by everyone, for he often stuck out his neck for the rest of us. At one such occasion, the leadership grew threatened by his leadership, and decided to overly abuse and torment him as a warning to the rest of us. They took and beat him severely, nearly to death, and chained him up high in one of the large barns on the property. Then the leaders locked the barn so that we could not visit him after they showed him to me and a few others.
I knew that we couldn't let this happen. I gathered a couple of close friends (including the pyro), and we snuck out at night and made our way silently to the large barn. We couldn't figure out a way in, so I decided to climb up to the roof with Pyro. There we found a loose spot that we could pry back just enough to allow me to slide through. After I had made it, I heard the voice of one of the leaders shouting at Pyro, who was forced to flee (I did not blame him at all), leaving me alone with the leader close behind me.
As I climbed around on the rafters, looking for a spot to drop down to the floor of the barn, I saw that the leader had climbed in after me. He then descended, almost magically, to the floor far below and began to taunt me, laughing ferociously. But I could not give up. I saw a wire nearby that looked strong enough to hold my weight, and I leapt from the beam on which I was balancing and grabbed the wire. My momentum carried me, allowing me to swing all the way to the wall where a ladder was resting conveniently. I latched onto the ladder and came to the floor.
The leader began threatening me, pointing at what he had done to Chris/Ryan. This particular leader, though strong, was of a heavier build, and I knew that I could outrun him (though I also know it would get me into further trouble). I decided to run around him and leap up onto the rig that stood near where Chris/Ryan was dangling. The leader tried to follow me, but I threw a wrench that was sitting on the rig down at him, hitting him in the face and knocking him out. I leapt once more and clung onto the chains holding Chris/Ryan and was able to free him. He fell a small ways to the ground, but managed to have a decent landing.
I heard shouts coming from outside the barn. More leaders had come out. As I considered my options (or a lack thereof), I heard another, more exciting noise: the sound of fireworks, followed by the screams of the leaders and of blasts hitting the barn door.
I climbed up the large door and unlocked it, and walked quickly with Chris/Ryan to the cadet barn, accompanied by Pyro and a few of his friends, who were covering us with firework blasts to keep the leaders away.
There we discussed what action we needed to take next. Pyro began to talk more like a leader and he assembled a large amount of angry cadets who were ready to take a more violent stance against the leadership. There plans were to coral all the farm animals into one of the barns and threaten to light it on fire if the cadets could not get there way and their freedom. Others wanted to capture a few of the leaders as well.
I feared this type of violence personally (I was very fond of the animals of the farm and did not want to see them come to harm. However, I completely understood Pyro's perspective, and knew that extreme measures probably had to be taken at this point. I was torn, as were several others among the cadets.
As we debated, the sun began to rise (which is rare in my dreams). A gray early morning light began to shine around us through the various holes in the barn. I was then able to see into our future.
I saw a vision of us inside the leader's home, tying down several of the leaders and trying to get them to agree to our terms, but then I saw the leaders overcoming us, causing us to fail in our attempt. I saw another vision of a burning barn and of devastating animal cries. I saw a vision of cadets sneaking along a river, hunting a large species of river rat in order to eat them to stay alive, always staying low and out of sight. I saw many of the events of this dream replayed on a television, with different faces faking all of these experiences. I saw families watching at home, eating meals in front of the screens, enjoying themselves.
Then I awoke.
In the first dream, I was wandering around a mid-sized city at night. I walked past apartment buildings, small parks, and a college, all lit with amber lights, making amber the only visible color. Finally, I arrived at a sort of halfway house for the severely depressed. It was a place where people could come and live communally with others suffering from depression, as well as counselors and caregivers. There were a lot of people walking about in pajama pants upon arrival, since it was late at night.
I walked up to the front desk and asked several questions about the place, out of curiosity (though they initially mistook me for an incoming patient). I then decided to donate several movies from my DVD collection (which I had with me in a backpack for some reason), including There Will Be Blood, The Departed, my Quentin Tarantino collection, among a few others. I'm not entirely sure why I thought such dark films were a good idea, but it seemed appropriate at the time.
I was excited about the work the place was doing. People there seemed happy. It was setup much like a hotel, with a general lobby and dining area in the center, and hallways lined with doors reaching out from the center. When I left, I immediate sought the company of my friends Matt K and Adam P (a friend from high school) and told them all about this place. Adam immediately decided he would donate a large set of rainbow umbrellas and blankets that he had stored near Koontz Lake in an old garage. We gathered these things (I remember thinking that these would make for good props for a stylized video shoot) and took them to the halfway house. They accepted this donation with great joy and had us set them up around a beach area they owned.
After finishing this task, I joined Matt and Adam in exploring the property a bit further. We saw only a few people as we walked down the various hallways. Finally we found a somewhat-hidden entrance to a basement, and we explored down there. We found some nursery areas and kids' playrooms, which had all the typical toys. Then we discovered the bathroom. There were pools of urine on the floor, and green slime crawling down the walls. The door jammed behind us and we couldn't get out the way we came in. We were fortunate that there was an open door on the other side, though unfortunate that we had to wade our way through the urine and unknown gunk to make our escape. I had the sudden urge to go to the bathroom, and did so in the toilet, though I'm sure it didn't matter where I went.
We finally emerged from the bathroom and made our way back up to the sandy beach. We discussed for a while how we could improve the living situation of the guest at the house.
Eventually I transitioned into a different dream.
I was living in some sort of cadet society. It was like a weird combination of military and farm life. We had a farm to attend, but also took part in rigorous military training. I was a younger version of myself, and everyone there was in their late teens. The leaders were all middle-aged, and they were also all quite cruel to everyone living there. The cadets had not volunteered to be there, and were instead something like slaves, for we didn't get paid for our work.
All the cadets slept in the same barn loft. We had only sleeping bags with no extra padding, and no area for privacy. There were a lot of goofy characters there, including a very scrawny kid who spoke quite highly of himself regarding his success at charming the ladies. There was another kid who was a pyromaniac, and enjoyed lighting fireworks and starting fires at inappropriate times (often getting the rest of us in trouble). I seemed to live out several sitcom-y episodes, though there was a much darker element to it (as if Hogan's Heroes actually portrayed a more realistic prison camp). There was a lot of racism among our leaders, and those among us with darker skin (including the pyromaniac) often got more severe punishments.
We, the cadets, were at last fed up with the way our leaders were treating us. They had their fancy house were they all had their own living spaces. They ate well while we ate terribly (many of us were malnourished). They enjoyed entertainment, while we had to creatively come up with ways to get our minds off of our living situation. But at least we had each other's company.
One among us was a combination of Chris Pratt and Ryan Gosling. He was the oldest of the cadets, nearly 20, and he was beloved by everyone, for he often stuck out his neck for the rest of us. At one such occasion, the leadership grew threatened by his leadership, and decided to overly abuse and torment him as a warning to the rest of us. They took and beat him severely, nearly to death, and chained him up high in one of the large barns on the property. Then the leaders locked the barn so that we could not visit him after they showed him to me and a few others.
I knew that we couldn't let this happen. I gathered a couple of close friends (including the pyro), and we snuck out at night and made our way silently to the large barn. We couldn't figure out a way in, so I decided to climb up to the roof with Pyro. There we found a loose spot that we could pry back just enough to allow me to slide through. After I had made it, I heard the voice of one of the leaders shouting at Pyro, who was forced to flee (I did not blame him at all), leaving me alone with the leader close behind me.
As I climbed around on the rafters, looking for a spot to drop down to the floor of the barn, I saw that the leader had climbed in after me. He then descended, almost magically, to the floor far below and began to taunt me, laughing ferociously. But I could not give up. I saw a wire nearby that looked strong enough to hold my weight, and I leapt from the beam on which I was balancing and grabbed the wire. My momentum carried me, allowing me to swing all the way to the wall where a ladder was resting conveniently. I latched onto the ladder and came to the floor.
The leader began threatening me, pointing at what he had done to Chris/Ryan. This particular leader, though strong, was of a heavier build, and I knew that I could outrun him (though I also know it would get me into further trouble). I decided to run around him and leap up onto the rig that stood near where Chris/Ryan was dangling. The leader tried to follow me, but I threw a wrench that was sitting on the rig down at him, hitting him in the face and knocking him out. I leapt once more and clung onto the chains holding Chris/Ryan and was able to free him. He fell a small ways to the ground, but managed to have a decent landing.
I heard shouts coming from outside the barn. More leaders had come out. As I considered my options (or a lack thereof), I heard another, more exciting noise: the sound of fireworks, followed by the screams of the leaders and of blasts hitting the barn door.
I climbed up the large door and unlocked it, and walked quickly with Chris/Ryan to the cadet barn, accompanied by Pyro and a few of his friends, who were covering us with firework blasts to keep the leaders away.
There we discussed what action we needed to take next. Pyro began to talk more like a leader and he assembled a large amount of angry cadets who were ready to take a more violent stance against the leadership. There plans were to coral all the farm animals into one of the barns and threaten to light it on fire if the cadets could not get there way and their freedom. Others wanted to capture a few of the leaders as well.
I feared this type of violence personally (I was very fond of the animals of the farm and did not want to see them come to harm. However, I completely understood Pyro's perspective, and knew that extreme measures probably had to be taken at this point. I was torn, as were several others among the cadets.
As we debated, the sun began to rise (which is rare in my dreams). A gray early morning light began to shine around us through the various holes in the barn. I was then able to see into our future.
I saw a vision of us inside the leader's home, tying down several of the leaders and trying to get them to agree to our terms, but then I saw the leaders overcoming us, causing us to fail in our attempt. I saw another vision of a burning barn and of devastating animal cries. I saw a vision of cadets sneaking along a river, hunting a large species of river rat in order to eat them to stay alive, always staying low and out of sight. I saw many of the events of this dream replayed on a television, with different faces faking all of these experiences. I saw families watching at home, eating meals in front of the screens, enjoying themselves.
Then I awoke.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Dream #547 (January 10, 2017) - Con Artists and Cults
This dream was very long. I've been told dreams only last an hour or two, but it's difficult to believe that sometimes.
I began this dream as a clean-shaven, brown-haired man married to a blonde gal. We were con artists and traveled around the state of Oklahoma (I'm very unfamiliar with that state) and would con semi-wealthy folk into investing in pieces of real estate that we didn't own (I don't really know how this worked exactly). We would take over property of people who were on vacation or deceased or whatever and bring in customers and make the transactions all in the matter of a couple of days, collect the money, and move on.
After a sort of montage of this behavior (that portion of the dream was pretty long, included a lot of hand-shaking with portly old men smoking cigars, and me dusting and arranging furniture), my wife and I accidentally broke into a home that was still occupied. Inside this beautiful farm house were dozens of black-haired men with bowl cuts and white button-up shirts and black jeans. It was apparently some sort of religious cult and they all stared at us without saying a word or looking particularly upset or angry with us. They just had totally blank expressions. For some reason they were scattered about the room arbitrarily, and they all were slightly leaning on something (a wall, a railing, etc.). I was freaked out and wanted to escape. Then I noticed that my wife had started to form the same expression on her face as she stared at one of the men. I grabbed her arm and ran down a long glass hallway that led out into the backyard of the house.
A bunch of friends of ours were there with portable water-based entertainment (little pools, squirt guns, water bombs, water balloons, buckets, swimming suits, etc.). They thought that we would have control of this property for a week, but I had to tell them they had to move their water party elsewhere. My wife and I joined them (we followed their fleet of pickup trucks in our wood-paneled station wagon) to a remote grassy spot. We set up all the pools and sprinklers and whatnot and the party commenced.
I couldn't stop thinking about the weird men we had seen; I wanted to know exactly what was wrong with them and if they could be helped. I decided to leave the party (my wife stayed with them) and I returned to the farm house. I hadn't noticed before, but there was a huge conference center built into the farmhouse (I wondered how I could miss such a thing). The driveway and side door of the house, by the way, looked very similar to the driveway and side door of my family's old house that we lived in when I was very little.
I got out of my station wagon and walked through the glass hallway again, but this time taking a different turn that went deeper into the conference center. The once empty hallway had since become nearly full of people. It made me feel less conspicuous, though I felt weirded out by the masses. They didn't all have the same bowl cut or clothing style as the men from earlier, but for some reason that didn't make me feel any more comfortable.
I entered the cult's gift shop, and there were all kinds of porcelain knickknacks and books with somehow stomach-churning graphic design. A short elderly man with perfectly circular lensed glasses and simultaneously warm and eerie smile was at the cash register taking people's money. He saw me and grabbed an angel figurine and offered it to me. I refused it and continued walking.
Past the gift shop was a vast open space with a lot of windows and high ceilings, resembling an airport terminal. All the decor was grey. I saw my brother Mike talking with a group of his college friends, and I approached them. They told me they thought this cult was hilarious and that they really wanted to see a service because of how ridiculous they hear it was. I told them I would probably join them. I was really curious. I told them I would meet them in the sanctuary when the service started, and I left them and continued to explore the building.
I found a weird offshoot room that didn't resemble anything else. It was a wooden, garage-like room with an insane amount of support beams connecting the floor, ceiling, walls, and other beams at varying angles. There was a spinning wooden wheel in the center of the room with a trough of water below it. The wheel was spinning without any sort of force propelling it. I heard a choir singing in the distance and thought that the service was starting, so I headed for the sanctuary.
The sanctuary was blocked off by a huge concrete wall with four solid, windowless doors that led into it. I saw my brother and his friends enter, and I starting speed-walking so that I could see where they were going to sit. Then a boy started walking toward me from the sanctuary, causing me to pause. He was a normal looking boy from his head to his knees, but his body ended there and his shins and feet were replaces by large metal forks that made an excruciating screech as he walked. My heart was racing because this kid really freaked me out. To top it off, he was wearing this green pair of goggles that had swirling black circles where his eyes should be. I couldn't help but look into those goggles when he stood in front of me.
In the eyes of the goggles I was able to see inside the sanctuary. I could see that my brother and his friends had all exchanged their regular clothes for white robes and were singing in the choir. Their eyes looked dead. I gathered that there was some sort of hypnotic quality to the service and decided I shouldn't enter. Instead I headed to the nearest exit.
When I left the building, I discovered that my car was at the farthest corner of a vast parking lot and not in a driveway. I wasn't sure if someone had moved my car or if there were something illusory about the whole place. I began to see more and more people in the parking lot that at first looked empty to me. They were all screaming and running about, flailing their limbs. My car was the only car in the parking lot and some of the people were trying to get into it. I also noticed that parts of the parking lot were burning and I was scared I would walk into a fire without seeing it. I didn't know what things were real and what were illusions.
I managed to shove away the people around my car and I quickly got in and shut the door. Then I heard someone pounding on my window and I saw Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino - I called him "Childish" a couple times in the dream). He was begging to get in, but I wasn't sure if I should open the door.
He appeared to be real, and in less of a panic (but still worried) than the other people in the parking lot, so I scooted over to the passenger seat and let him in. I asked him if he knew the way out and he said he did and he booked it out of there.
I looked out the passenger window as the chaotic parking lot passed by. When I looked at the driver's side, I saw that Donald was no longer there. I called out for him, checking the back seat, but he was gone. Then I realized that my left foot was stretched out over to the gas pedal and that I was in fact driving the car, and at a dangerous speed. I looked through the windshield just in time to avoid crashing into a tree. The car spun out and I climbed back into the driver's seat and continued driving. I had no idea where I was.
Then I awoke.
I tried to go back asleep because I wanted to keep that dream going, but that, of course, never works.
I began this dream as a clean-shaven, brown-haired man married to a blonde gal. We were con artists and traveled around the state of Oklahoma (I'm very unfamiliar with that state) and would con semi-wealthy folk into investing in pieces of real estate that we didn't own (I don't really know how this worked exactly). We would take over property of people who were on vacation or deceased or whatever and bring in customers and make the transactions all in the matter of a couple of days, collect the money, and move on.
After a sort of montage of this behavior (that portion of the dream was pretty long, included a lot of hand-shaking with portly old men smoking cigars, and me dusting and arranging furniture), my wife and I accidentally broke into a home that was still occupied. Inside this beautiful farm house were dozens of black-haired men with bowl cuts and white button-up shirts and black jeans. It was apparently some sort of religious cult and they all stared at us without saying a word or looking particularly upset or angry with us. They just had totally blank expressions. For some reason they were scattered about the room arbitrarily, and they all were slightly leaning on something (a wall, a railing, etc.). I was freaked out and wanted to escape. Then I noticed that my wife had started to form the same expression on her face as she stared at one of the men. I grabbed her arm and ran down a long glass hallway that led out into the backyard of the house.
A bunch of friends of ours were there with portable water-based entertainment (little pools, squirt guns, water bombs, water balloons, buckets, swimming suits, etc.). They thought that we would have control of this property for a week, but I had to tell them they had to move their water party elsewhere. My wife and I joined them (we followed their fleet of pickup trucks in our wood-paneled station wagon) to a remote grassy spot. We set up all the pools and sprinklers and whatnot and the party commenced.
I couldn't stop thinking about the weird men we had seen; I wanted to know exactly what was wrong with them and if they could be helped. I decided to leave the party (my wife stayed with them) and I returned to the farm house. I hadn't noticed before, but there was a huge conference center built into the farmhouse (I wondered how I could miss such a thing). The driveway and side door of the house, by the way, looked very similar to the driveway and side door of my family's old house that we lived in when I was very little.
I got out of my station wagon and walked through the glass hallway again, but this time taking a different turn that went deeper into the conference center. The once empty hallway had since become nearly full of people. It made me feel less conspicuous, though I felt weirded out by the masses. They didn't all have the same bowl cut or clothing style as the men from earlier, but for some reason that didn't make me feel any more comfortable.
I entered the cult's gift shop, and there were all kinds of porcelain knickknacks and books with somehow stomach-churning graphic design. A short elderly man with perfectly circular lensed glasses and simultaneously warm and eerie smile was at the cash register taking people's money. He saw me and grabbed an angel figurine and offered it to me. I refused it and continued walking.
Past the gift shop was a vast open space with a lot of windows and high ceilings, resembling an airport terminal. All the decor was grey. I saw my brother Mike talking with a group of his college friends, and I approached them. They told me they thought this cult was hilarious and that they really wanted to see a service because of how ridiculous they hear it was. I told them I would probably join them. I was really curious. I told them I would meet them in the sanctuary when the service started, and I left them and continued to explore the building.
I found a weird offshoot room that didn't resemble anything else. It was a wooden, garage-like room with an insane amount of support beams connecting the floor, ceiling, walls, and other beams at varying angles. There was a spinning wooden wheel in the center of the room with a trough of water below it. The wheel was spinning without any sort of force propelling it. I heard a choir singing in the distance and thought that the service was starting, so I headed for the sanctuary.
The sanctuary was blocked off by a huge concrete wall with four solid, windowless doors that led into it. I saw my brother and his friends enter, and I starting speed-walking so that I could see where they were going to sit. Then a boy started walking toward me from the sanctuary, causing me to pause. He was a normal looking boy from his head to his knees, but his body ended there and his shins and feet were replaces by large metal forks that made an excruciating screech as he walked. My heart was racing because this kid really freaked me out. To top it off, he was wearing this green pair of goggles that had swirling black circles where his eyes should be. I couldn't help but look into those goggles when he stood in front of me.
In the eyes of the goggles I was able to see inside the sanctuary. I could see that my brother and his friends had all exchanged their regular clothes for white robes and were singing in the choir. Their eyes looked dead. I gathered that there was some sort of hypnotic quality to the service and decided I shouldn't enter. Instead I headed to the nearest exit.
When I left the building, I discovered that my car was at the farthest corner of a vast parking lot and not in a driveway. I wasn't sure if someone had moved my car or if there were something illusory about the whole place. I began to see more and more people in the parking lot that at first looked empty to me. They were all screaming and running about, flailing their limbs. My car was the only car in the parking lot and some of the people were trying to get into it. I also noticed that parts of the parking lot were burning and I was scared I would walk into a fire without seeing it. I didn't know what things were real and what were illusions.
I managed to shove away the people around my car and I quickly got in and shut the door. Then I heard someone pounding on my window and I saw Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino - I called him "Childish" a couple times in the dream). He was begging to get in, but I wasn't sure if I should open the door.
He appeared to be real, and in less of a panic (but still worried) than the other people in the parking lot, so I scooted over to the passenger seat and let him in. I asked him if he knew the way out and he said he did and he booked it out of there.
I looked out the passenger window as the chaotic parking lot passed by. When I looked at the driver's side, I saw that Donald was no longer there. I called out for him, checking the back seat, but he was gone. Then I realized that my left foot was stretched out over to the gas pedal and that I was in fact driving the car, and at a dangerous speed. I looked through the windshield just in time to avoid crashing into a tree. The car spun out and I climbed back into the driver's seat and continued driving. I had no idea where I was.
Then I awoke.
I tried to go back asleep because I wanted to keep that dream going, but that, of course, never works.
Dream #546 (January 9, 2017) Beach Firecrackers
Extra.
I was with Matt (older bro) on a hazy beach in a gloomy twilight (it felt like day, but didn't look like it). We wandered through a series of locker rooms, past the navy lockers which looked like they could use a little touch-up. Matt was wearing a grey hoodie and I had a blue Dashboard Confessional shirt (which once belonged to Matt in real life). I was also carrying two awkwardly long (12 feet) firecrackers and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with them.
We made our way out to the beachfront and saw a college girls soccer game to our left and high school volleyball to our right. Neither of us had much interest in watching either of them, so we walked right through the soccer field to the water (annoying spectators and players and referees). The waves were tall, but gentle when they landed on the sand. Matt and I walked away from the people for about a mile, as I tried to figure out the purpose of my firecrackers. We didn't talk (my brother and I), but not because we were angry at each other or anything like that.
We encountered a large wall made from red sand bricks, on top of which we saw a dozen men pulling up a dozen stones using ropes attached to pulleys above the wall, all in unison. They ignored us as we walked past the wall to a large rock face. Matt decided to climb it, but I felt that it was important for me not to let go of my firecrackers, so I let him go and I walked back to the locker room alone.
I sat on a massage table in the middle of the room and decided it was at last time to take a rest from the firecrackers, so I set them outside the locker room building and relaxed on the massage table and fell asleep.
I woke up to a soccer player turning me over by the shoulder and diving in for a kiss. I fought it off and ran outside. Then I saw that the fuses on both of my firecrackers had been lit, and I sprinted away from them without much thought needed to consider the danger.
They exploded with a disappointing bang, but the flame produced was marvelous and horrifying. The overhang above the locker room door caught on fire, followed by the whole building. It was then that I realized the exteriors of all the buildings around me looked like something from Aladdin, and they all started to catch on fire. A tiny firetruck (about the size of an electric car) pulled up to me and asked me the source of the fire. I pointed to where the fireworks had exploded. I knew we would all soon be engulfed in flames and didn't know why it mattered where the fire had begun.
Then I awoke.
Friday, August 12, 2016
Dream #545 (August 10, 2016)
Out of retirement.
I dreamt that I was abducted and taken into an insane asylum (were it not for the nature of this place in my dream I would use 'psychiatric hospital') against my will. I was not crazy, and I was pretty darn sure of it, but nobody else in my life seemed to be convinced. What had I done to harm anyone? Even my own family was unable to stand up for me.
Somehow I spent weeks in the asylum. It was located underground below a courtyard that resembled a graveyard but without any tombstones. There were dirt passages leading in all sorts of directions, many of which had metal gates and locks blocking them off to patients. The rooms in this asylum were visually interesting, though a bit horrifying. All the walls, floors, and furniture were plastered with torn up newspaper strips like paper mache. Even the beds had paper mache blankets, frames, and pillows. There was a hard crustiness to everything.
During my weeks in the asylum I got to know most of the patients there, and I had formed a secret group with others like me who weren't mentally unstable (for the most part). We met in the bedroom of one of the patients who was tall with thick glasses and dark black hair. Most of the rest of us slept in rooms with bunkbeds, but he had his own private room. During one of the meetings, he revealed to us a ray gun that he had created from things he found around the asylum. He said we could use it to destroy the locks on the various gates that stood before the tunnels we needed to access to escape. I had become familiar with the shifts of the guards and some of the weak points in their supposed constant surveillance of the patients. Because of this knowledge I was able to lead our small group of about eight patients through the series of tunnels that lead out of the asylum.
When we neared the last tunnel that I knew would lead us out to the tombless graveyard, I saw another tunnel that led in a different direction. I knew it wasn't the right way out, but it called to me and I knew I needed to see where it would take me. The rest of the group were eager to follow me wherever I led them, so they joined me.
After blasting off a series of locks, we found ourselves in a control room of sorts. I pressed a few buttons and somehow opened up a portal to parallel universes. A young dark-skinned kid (about 12 or 13 years old) ran out of the opening with a look of fear in his eyes. Beings in red cloaks with masks were chasing him, carrying some sort of computerized weapon. I hit a large green button and closed the portal before they could enter into my universe. The kid looked up at me and told me he needed to escape. I explained to him that he couldn't have met me at a better time.
I led the group of now 9 people out of the tunnel into the graveyard. Unfortunately the guards had discovered our absence and were running toward the main gate (which is where we were exiting). My tall friend with the gun destroyed the locks of the gate and we all began to flee, but the guards had gained on us. They started tossing small green, earthly looking spheres at us (they were slightly smaller than tennis balls). The spheres had a strange ability to cause humans to gravitate toward them, slowing them down immensely. Most of our company was caught up by these gravity balls, unable to escape their pull. Only the kid, the laser gun guy, and I were able to outrun the throw of the guards, and we sprinted down a freshly paved and painted road. We weren't safe for long; the guards jumped into their jeeps and started driving toward us. The chap with the gun told us he would take care of the "buggers" and that the kid and I should keep running. I thanked him with a nod and took off with the kid.
After an insanely long-distance sprint, we made it to an eerie blue apartment complex build next to an ocean beach. Even though it had a potentially beautiful location, it was completely empty. A nasty storm had come upon us, so we took shelter in there. I heard one of the jeeps pull up to the building, so the kid and I ducked into an unlit room and hid there.
While we were there, the kid explained to me that he brought great danger to my universe because very evil and powerful people were after him. He told me that a near infinite number of parallel universes existed, and that every person ever to have lived or that ever would live had different versions of themselves dwelling in these other universes. However, he was completely unique. There were no other versions of this kid in any parallel universe, and this uniqueness is what made his enemies fear him enough to try to destroy him. The kid told me he had powers he didn't understand and wouldn't be able to explain to me.
Then I awoke.
I dreamt that I was abducted and taken into an insane asylum (were it not for the nature of this place in my dream I would use 'psychiatric hospital') against my will. I was not crazy, and I was pretty darn sure of it, but nobody else in my life seemed to be convinced. What had I done to harm anyone? Even my own family was unable to stand up for me.
Somehow I spent weeks in the asylum. It was located underground below a courtyard that resembled a graveyard but without any tombstones. There were dirt passages leading in all sorts of directions, many of which had metal gates and locks blocking them off to patients. The rooms in this asylum were visually interesting, though a bit horrifying. All the walls, floors, and furniture were plastered with torn up newspaper strips like paper mache. Even the beds had paper mache blankets, frames, and pillows. There was a hard crustiness to everything.
During my weeks in the asylum I got to know most of the patients there, and I had formed a secret group with others like me who weren't mentally unstable (for the most part). We met in the bedroom of one of the patients who was tall with thick glasses and dark black hair. Most of the rest of us slept in rooms with bunkbeds, but he had his own private room. During one of the meetings, he revealed to us a ray gun that he had created from things he found around the asylum. He said we could use it to destroy the locks on the various gates that stood before the tunnels we needed to access to escape. I had become familiar with the shifts of the guards and some of the weak points in their supposed constant surveillance of the patients. Because of this knowledge I was able to lead our small group of about eight patients through the series of tunnels that lead out of the asylum.
When we neared the last tunnel that I knew would lead us out to the tombless graveyard, I saw another tunnel that led in a different direction. I knew it wasn't the right way out, but it called to me and I knew I needed to see where it would take me. The rest of the group were eager to follow me wherever I led them, so they joined me.
After blasting off a series of locks, we found ourselves in a control room of sorts. I pressed a few buttons and somehow opened up a portal to parallel universes. A young dark-skinned kid (about 12 or 13 years old) ran out of the opening with a look of fear in his eyes. Beings in red cloaks with masks were chasing him, carrying some sort of computerized weapon. I hit a large green button and closed the portal before they could enter into my universe. The kid looked up at me and told me he needed to escape. I explained to him that he couldn't have met me at a better time.
I led the group of now 9 people out of the tunnel into the graveyard. Unfortunately the guards had discovered our absence and were running toward the main gate (which is where we were exiting). My tall friend with the gun destroyed the locks of the gate and we all began to flee, but the guards had gained on us. They started tossing small green, earthly looking spheres at us (they were slightly smaller than tennis balls). The spheres had a strange ability to cause humans to gravitate toward them, slowing them down immensely. Most of our company was caught up by these gravity balls, unable to escape their pull. Only the kid, the laser gun guy, and I were able to outrun the throw of the guards, and we sprinted down a freshly paved and painted road. We weren't safe for long; the guards jumped into their jeeps and started driving toward us. The chap with the gun told us he would take care of the "buggers" and that the kid and I should keep running. I thanked him with a nod and took off with the kid.
After an insanely long-distance sprint, we made it to an eerie blue apartment complex build next to an ocean beach. Even though it had a potentially beautiful location, it was completely empty. A nasty storm had come upon us, so we took shelter in there. I heard one of the jeeps pull up to the building, so the kid and I ducked into an unlit room and hid there.
While we were there, the kid explained to me that he brought great danger to my universe because very evil and powerful people were after him. He told me that a near infinite number of parallel universes existed, and that every person ever to have lived or that ever would live had different versions of themselves dwelling in these other universes. However, he was completely unique. There were no other versions of this kid in any parallel universe, and this uniqueness is what made his enemies fear him enough to try to destroy him. The kid told me he had powers he didn't understand and wouldn't be able to explain to me.
Then I awoke.
Friday, February 5, 2016
Dream #544 (February 5, 2016) Neil's In-Laws
Kind of boring.
I dreamt that I was visiting the in-laws of my friend Neil (he and his wife Hannah were also present). However, even then I knew they were his in-laws in my dream, they were actually his real parents from real life, so that was kind of weird. They were very hospitable and served a lot of delicious egg-based foods while I stayed with them. Nearly 100% of the time my dreams take place during some form of twilight, but this dream was in constant blue-sky daytime. Neil's in-parents lived in a large fancy lake house and had several servants who were always busy.
I spent much of the dream going through Neil and Hannah's childhood belongings. They were trying to figure out which things they wanted to keep and which they wanted to throw out. There was an entire bedroom in the giant bakehouse (basically a mansion) stacked from floor to ceiling with various papers, drawings, photos, and news clippings that they had saved over the years. Hannah kept showing me things Neil had written from his middle school newspaper, and they all seemed to be worth the read. We discussed how it was simultaneously fun and sad to go through the old memories.
After hours of this, I went upstairs with Neil and Hannah's sister Carrie to go make sandwiches for everyone. We were also joined by a golden retriever. I remember packing all of the sandwiches into a bright neon green and blue lunch bag that Neil and Hannah were going to take back with them to Montana (we were all in Illinois for some reason). Neil and I then went to build a transparent puzzle (which I had never heard of before and might seriously consider inventing). Suddenly Hannah ran up from the basement carrying some portable holograph player and showed a video that had been made by one of her ancestors. The old, eccentric man in the holograph said he hid a special note in an old lunch pale. I remembered seeing the lunch pale earlier that day and asked Neil's mother-in-law (actual mom) if she knew where it was and she panicked because she had just thrown it into the lake in the backyard.
I immediately jumped up, ran out of the house, scrambled down the embanked backyard, and dove into the lake. I was underwater for a scary amount of time, and I could hear muddy screams as I resurfaced with the lunch pale. They yells of concern turned to cheers as I came out of the lake. I also pulled an old rocking chair up with me. The family took out the letter and read it together. They all cried, but I was unable to participate because they all read it silently and there wasn't space for me to get a peak. So I waited patiently in the rocking chair I had discovered.
I began walking away after awhile. I was alone. The dog followed me for a bit, but I told him to go back to his family. I was soon again in twilight. Everything was dust and sand and fog. Out of nowhere I stumbled upon a racetrack and a lone sprinter was sprinting lap after lap after lap around it. There was an enormous tire in the track, larger than any I had ever seen, and the runner would climb through its center each time he encountered it.
I sat in the dust at the edge of the track near the tire and watched the runner for what seemed like an hour. He never grew tired. He was wearing a white jersey with a single red diagonal stripe across the front and white shorts. He was also carrying a black baton.
Then I awoke.
I dreamt that I was visiting the in-laws of my friend Neil (he and his wife Hannah were also present). However, even then I knew they were his in-laws in my dream, they were actually his real parents from real life, so that was kind of weird. They were very hospitable and served a lot of delicious egg-based foods while I stayed with them. Nearly 100% of the time my dreams take place during some form of twilight, but this dream was in constant blue-sky daytime. Neil's in-parents lived in a large fancy lake house and had several servants who were always busy.
I spent much of the dream going through Neil and Hannah's childhood belongings. They were trying to figure out which things they wanted to keep and which they wanted to throw out. There was an entire bedroom in the giant bakehouse (basically a mansion) stacked from floor to ceiling with various papers, drawings, photos, and news clippings that they had saved over the years. Hannah kept showing me things Neil had written from his middle school newspaper, and they all seemed to be worth the read. We discussed how it was simultaneously fun and sad to go through the old memories.
After hours of this, I went upstairs with Neil and Hannah's sister Carrie to go make sandwiches for everyone. We were also joined by a golden retriever. I remember packing all of the sandwiches into a bright neon green and blue lunch bag that Neil and Hannah were going to take back with them to Montana (we were all in Illinois for some reason). Neil and I then went to build a transparent puzzle (which I had never heard of before and might seriously consider inventing). Suddenly Hannah ran up from the basement carrying some portable holograph player and showed a video that had been made by one of her ancestors. The old, eccentric man in the holograph said he hid a special note in an old lunch pale. I remembered seeing the lunch pale earlier that day and asked Neil's mother-in-law (actual mom) if she knew where it was and she panicked because she had just thrown it into the lake in the backyard.
I immediately jumped up, ran out of the house, scrambled down the embanked backyard, and dove into the lake. I was underwater for a scary amount of time, and I could hear muddy screams as I resurfaced with the lunch pale. They yells of concern turned to cheers as I came out of the lake. I also pulled an old rocking chair up with me. The family took out the letter and read it together. They all cried, but I was unable to participate because they all read it silently and there wasn't space for me to get a peak. So I waited patiently in the rocking chair I had discovered.
I began walking away after awhile. I was alone. The dog followed me for a bit, but I told him to go back to his family. I was soon again in twilight. Everything was dust and sand and fog. Out of nowhere I stumbled upon a racetrack and a lone sprinter was sprinting lap after lap after lap around it. There was an enormous tire in the track, larger than any I had ever seen, and the runner would climb through its center each time he encountered it.
I sat in the dust at the edge of the track near the tire and watched the runner for what seemed like an hour. He never grew tired. He was wearing a white jersey with a single red diagonal stripe across the front and white shorts. He was also carrying a black baton.
Then I awoke.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Dream #543 (February 4, 2016) The Future and Teleportation
The return of the dream blog (for now).
I dreamt that I was living in a small community at some point in the future. The couple dozen of us lived in a large spaceship that had crash-landed by Navy Pier in Chicago. Though in my dream Navy Pier was surrounded by suburbs. The community had built an electric fence around Navy Pier to keep out any unwanted creatures and people (though there were not many people in those days). I was a bit of a rebel and liked to wander about the suburbs from time to time, exploring the vacant homes and contemplating their collective emptiness. When I would try to return to the pier community of peers, they would always give me a hard time and threaten to not let me back in the next time, but they always let me back in.
However, on this particular occasion, a sudden violent storm hit Chicago. I was forced to take refuge in one of the homes so as not to get blown away. The lights no longer worked in these houses anyway, so I was prepared with a flashlight. I took shelter in the basement, where I found an old gas-powered Mole Transporter. These things used lawnmower engines for power and were capable of opening up holes in time-space allowing transport to other Moles. Moles were very expensive in their day, though there weren't too uncommon. The pier community had one sitting in the center of the outdoor meeting area near the lake. I urgently needed to return to the community because we had at last fixed the spaceship and were going to actually try to fly it to find other humans who had abandoned Earth.
I started punching in the numbers of my destination, then pulled the lawnmower engine to start up the Mole. I hoped that someone in the community was near the Mole there so that they could power it up (they would see an incoming transport and start the engine; otherwise I wouldn't transport anywhere and instead just get a really bad headache, like I had just run into a brick wall). I made several transport attempts, but to no avail. After trying about 5 times (my head was killing me), I tried one last time. Luckily, one brave soul had ran out from the storm shelter to retrieve something and saw the incoming transport. He started up and engine and greeted me as I entered.
We both ran into the spaceship (which look like a classic UFO, but was crazy huge). The interior weirdly resembled the church I grew up going to in Koontz Lake, IN, though all the walls were more rounded to account for the shape of the spaceship. Every person of the pier community was at a different station, doing what needed to be done in order for flight to occur. My station was a double station: cycling/gunman. I would ride an exercise bike that was hooked up to a bunch of old arcade games (somehow used as a power converter), and I would supply energy to the whole ship (I had plenty of Gatorade to keep me going - a product placement in my dream). I also had the controls to some of the weapons of the ship near me just in case we encountered meteors or other flying enemies in our path.
I grabbed a towel and some G-rade and hopped on the bike. Then a young man came running up to me and said that we had an incoming transport on the Mole (we had moved it inside). We didn't know who or what would be coming to us and couldn't decide if we should accept it. We called for the rest of the community to come down so we could make a decision together.
Then I awoke.
I dreamt that I was living in a small community at some point in the future. The couple dozen of us lived in a large spaceship that had crash-landed by Navy Pier in Chicago. Though in my dream Navy Pier was surrounded by suburbs. The community had built an electric fence around Navy Pier to keep out any unwanted creatures and people (though there were not many people in those days). I was a bit of a rebel and liked to wander about the suburbs from time to time, exploring the vacant homes and contemplating their collective emptiness. When I would try to return to the pier community of peers, they would always give me a hard time and threaten to not let me back in the next time, but they always let me back in.
However, on this particular occasion, a sudden violent storm hit Chicago. I was forced to take refuge in one of the homes so as not to get blown away. The lights no longer worked in these houses anyway, so I was prepared with a flashlight. I took shelter in the basement, where I found an old gas-powered Mole Transporter. These things used lawnmower engines for power and were capable of opening up holes in time-space allowing transport to other Moles. Moles were very expensive in their day, though there weren't too uncommon. The pier community had one sitting in the center of the outdoor meeting area near the lake. I urgently needed to return to the community because we had at last fixed the spaceship and were going to actually try to fly it to find other humans who had abandoned Earth.
I started punching in the numbers of my destination, then pulled the lawnmower engine to start up the Mole. I hoped that someone in the community was near the Mole there so that they could power it up (they would see an incoming transport and start the engine; otherwise I wouldn't transport anywhere and instead just get a really bad headache, like I had just run into a brick wall). I made several transport attempts, but to no avail. After trying about 5 times (my head was killing me), I tried one last time. Luckily, one brave soul had ran out from the storm shelter to retrieve something and saw the incoming transport. He started up and engine and greeted me as I entered.
We both ran into the spaceship (which look like a classic UFO, but was crazy huge). The interior weirdly resembled the church I grew up going to in Koontz Lake, IN, though all the walls were more rounded to account for the shape of the spaceship. Every person of the pier community was at a different station, doing what needed to be done in order for flight to occur. My station was a double station: cycling/gunman. I would ride an exercise bike that was hooked up to a bunch of old arcade games (somehow used as a power converter), and I would supply energy to the whole ship (I had plenty of Gatorade to keep me going - a product placement in my dream). I also had the controls to some of the weapons of the ship near me just in case we encountered meteors or other flying enemies in our path.
I grabbed a towel and some G-rade and hopped on the bike. Then a young man came running up to me and said that we had an incoming transport on the Mole (we had moved it inside). We didn't know who or what would be coming to us and couldn't decide if we should accept it. We called for the rest of the community to come down so we could make a decision together.
Then I awoke.
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