Dream #287 (November 29, 2010)

This is far less intense than my most recent dreams. I kind of like the intense ones sometimes, but I needed a break.

In the dream I had recently moved to Virginia Beach to prepare for a three-month tour of the world that I was going to take with a bunch of missionaries. We planned on going to Portugal, Spain, South Africa, China, Brazil, and more. I was very nervous about this trip, for I did not really know what I was getting myself into. At the same time, I was very excited to acquire some new experiences and friendships.

Unfortunately, I did not get to visit these places in my dream, for I still had three weeks in Virginia Beach before taking off. The first thing I did was go disc golfing at the dunes in North Carolina (I've never actually been there). Interestingly enough, my brother Mike and Kyle and Kody Heffelfinger were all there. My dream skipped forward to hole 9, which was at the base of a very steep and very tall dune. I kept getting frustrated with it, as did those with me, for we were unable to throw the disc more than ten feet in the air, and it would slide back down every time. We didn't know how to finish the hole and thought it impossible until a couple of other guys came and, without any effort, launched the discs all the way to the top of the dune with one throw.

Then my dream skipped forward to another night. I was outside the Regent Communications Building, waiting for somebody to let me into the school. My friend Jon Ayee walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to help out with a film he was working on, and I said I definitely would.

We went inside and I was asked to mix the sound and hold the boom microphone (which is always what I'm asked to do). The film was being directed by Dan McCullum, and it was, of all things, a musical. It takes a lot for me to enjoy a musical, so I was not too excited about what I was going to be doing for the next several hours.

The lighting setup for the shot that was happening was very interesting. It involved some medical and dental lighting equipment that was being reflected off of many small mirrors. It was pretty cool.

We soon started the first take, and the lead actor began to sing. At first, I was annoyed, but eventually and strangely, the song grew on me and I began tapping my foot. Before I knew it, I was bobbing my head and enjoying the music coming from his mouth. Then Dan cut the take, claiming he needed to rearrange everything.

This meant that I had a long break, so I, for some reason, hid under the actor's chair. At the time, Jeff Kreider was sitting there, and I wanted to hide from him. He soon asked, "Where did Joe go?" and I laughed to myself. I snuck out from under the chair and ran to the bathroom, which had a monitor that allowed me to know when I would be needed. I pulled out a deck of cards and began playing solitaire.

Then I awoke.

Dream #286 (November 28, 2010)

Another war dream.

I was living in the Medieval, and a great battle was taking place. There were knights, both good and bad, scurrying about, slaying each other in the twilight of my dream. I was sneaking around dark alleys in the castle corridors, trying to avoid death and pain. I ran into a couple of enemies, but I managed to overtake them (but I had the mercy to let them live). I was very quick with my little short sword.

I was wearing baggy old clothes, and I knew that I was no knight. In fact, I was a peasant in the dream. The only reason I was fighting was because I was fond of the prince and princess (who were soon going to be in charge of the land in which I was living). In fact, this royal couple was a couple I know in real life: Mike and Rachel Phipps.

As I snuck around the deepest and darkest parts of the enormous castle/city, I ran into Princess Rachel. She was wearing a great white dress and gave off a glow so bright that I was forced to look at the ground when I encountered her.

She was glad to see me, for she could not find her Prince Michael, and she was alone. I told her that I would do my best to protect her, but I was not nearly as good a fighter as Mike (Prince Michael). In fact, I was more of a runner (I often fled battles because I was too reluctant to kill).

She and I ran swiftly through the dark corridors, with such silence that we were about to sneak by even the alert enemies. There was one time where I was forced to fight a man, who had thought it would be great to slay the princess of the great city. Luckily I put a stop to that, but at the cost of the other man's life, who was the first person I had ever killed. I stopped and thought about my actions, for too long.

Before I knew what was going on around me, I heard Rachel shout. I turned around and saw a large, armor-clad knight swinging a sword toward my chest. There was no time for me to dodge the blow, and he cut me across my un-armored chest, causing me to fall to the ground. The knight went to capture Rachel, but she had managed to disappear. I was glad for her, but I noticed that I had a pool of blood all around me. It was indeed my blood, and I knew that I was going to die.

I was alone in a dark place that was, to me, getting even darker. I began to fade when I saw the glow from Rachel's dress illuminate the area around me. She had risked her life and come out of hiding to be with me as I passed away. I smiled, laid my head back, and began to embrace for the death that was about to hit me.

However, I lasted longer than I anticipated. I was able to have one last conversation with Rachel. She asked me what it was like to enter death. It seems like the last thing you would want to talk to a dying man about, but I appreciated the question. I told her that it was terrifying, for I did not know what the 'other side' would be like. I had my faith, but I still had no idea where exactly I was going. I told her that I was, as I breathed my final breaths, able to comprehend more things about life than I had ever been able to comprehend while I was in the prime of my life.

At that point, I laid my head back and died.

Then I awoke.

Dream #285 (November 27, 2010)

Here is a dream about war.

I was in the heart of the United States in the future. War had torn the country apart, and it was a mess of broken down city buildings, smog, and rivers of tar that ran all through the streets. Dead bodies were piled on the side of roads, the government was corrupt, and people were used to living in fear.

I was with a small band of rebels, and I was teaching them about the government's military. I was telling them all about how they are quick to kill and slow to get to know situations. I then gave them a history lesson of how our nation began to decline, a history that started all the way back to when William Jennings Bryan was not elected as President of the United States, getting beat by Progressivism. I talked about war and about industrialism as if I were some great authority (well, in the dream I was, for I was a well-respected leader of a successful band of rebels). When I reached the end of the lecture, I picked up a gun from the hand of a dead man on the street. I began to say that the military men were so paranoid that if they saw me with a gun, they would kill me immediately without getting to know why I had the gun or if it was even a real gun at all. At that moment, as I showed my followers the gun, I was shot in the back.

I fell to the ground and knew that I was going to die. Even so, I still fought hard to remain alive. I had a great fear of death in my dream, and I was terrified. I began to shake, cry, and wail, but nobody would listen to me or care for me.

I went into darkness.

I soon woke up (in another dream) on top of a tall wooden watchtower. I stood up, knowing that I should be on the look-out for enemy troops. When I looked down at the vast field below me, my heart sank as I saw a military completely clothed in black, made up of demons, advancing quickly toward the tower. I turned around and saw that, behind me, there was another army. This army was made up of men and mystical creatures, and I was led by my own father. He was wearing a helmet with rams horns, and he had the most amazing armor. He was going against an extremely threatening force, yet he looked confident and calm.

Then I awoke.

Dream #284 (November 26, 2010)

This is very strange.

In my dream I was visiting Bethel College. I pulled up in a green car (I've never owned a green vehicle) and parked it on the street outside the main entrance (where cars are not allowed to park). As I walked by the fountain, I saw a very tall and loud evangelist, who was nicely dressed in a black suit, standing by the water, screaming out the word of God.

I walked by him, for I had come to meet up with Kevin. There were a large number of people in the area, most of which were having picnics (which is definitely not usual). As I walked past the evangelist, he began to shout at me, asking, "What is your name and why are you here?" I turned and noticed that Kevin was there to meet me. I didn't want to give this crazy dude my real information, so I made up a name and told him I was just exercising. Unfortunately, Kevin pointed out my lie and said, "That's not your name, Joe. Don't lie."

Then the evangelist walked up to me, with a strange confidence, then swiftly put his hand in the back of my pants and yanked out a fistful of butt hair (I know that is absolutely disgusting, but it is extremely interesting). He held it up and yelled, gaining the attention of all the people within earshot. "This is why you have come!"

Then I awoke.

Dream #283 (November 25, 2010)

I missed a few days, but here are a bunch in a row.

I was in a large field of grass waiting for my ride to come and pick me up. I was standing next to Kevin Chupp, and my friends Stan Marks and Joanna Suter were standing across the field from us. I then decided to create a game to pass the time. We would take turns throwing stones toward each other, and if the stone landed five feet away from the opponent or closer, the thrower would get to move around and the opponent would have to stay still in that spot. Now, in the beginning, we all had to stay still, but Stan soon landed a rock just inches from my right shoe, so he was free to move about.

Soon after that, we had all landed rocks close to other people. In the meantime, Stan had climbed up a tower to try and avoid being hit. However, his plan backfired when I landed a rock right beside him, pinning him up there for a long time. I was running free when I noticed that about twenty other people had joined the game; there were rocks flying everywhere. In a few moments, I was startled by a car that nearly hit me in the back. It screeched to a halt right beside me and the passenger window rolled down, revealing Joanna in the driver's seat. "They never said anything about cars."

She drove me to a rock pile that was a half mile down the road so we could load up. However, when we arrived, we were ambushed and pinned to a spot just a few feet from the pile while our opponents took off in Joanna's car.

Then I awoke.

Dream #282 (November 20, 2010)

Three in a row. I'm getting back into the groove.

I dreamed that I was in a small blue car in a large black parking lot with my whole immediate family. We barely fit in the car, but we managed. We were sitting in a parking space in the lot in front of a large unmarked building.

After sitting there for quite some time, my older brother Matt and I decided that we couldn't wait anymore and that we were going to go into the building. When we walked inside, all we could see were crazy colorful flashing lights and bodies gyrating all around. We soon left.

When we came back outside, it was suddenly dark (it was afternoon before). I ran to the car and discovered that my family was nowhere to be found. I looked back to tell Matt, but he was gone as well. Then I noticed a man in a suit with dark, long hair and a beard standing by me, with a bunch of body guards. He was looking right at me with a strange smile on his face.

He was soon distracted by a pregnant Native American woman who was shouting at the top of her lungs as she walked toward him.

Then I awoke.

Dream #281 (November 19, 2010)

Last night was a bit crazy.

During the first part of the dream, I dreamt through the Crucifixion. It was insane. There were close-up shots of Jesus being nailed to the cross, his crown of thorns, his hands, his feet, his face, and his dripping blood. It was intense, especially because there was no rest from the extreme close images I was seeing. It really effected me.

Then I switched over to a different dream.

I was in a pirate restaurant with Kyle and Kody Heffelfinger. When I say pirate restaurant, I mean that all the customers and the waiters were pirates by trade.

Our waiter came to our table and asked what we wanted to order. We all purchased some sort of crazy seafood platter and water, except for Kody, who ordered a glass of wine through Kyle (Kody is only 16 or so). We soon received our enormous plates of highly decorated food and enjoyed the meal. As we were about halfway done with the food, the bouncer came to our table and asked Kody for his ID. Kody retrieved it from his wallet and handed it to the big, scary man as if there were nothing wrong with it. When the bouncer read it, he handed it back, then immediately grabbed all of us and dragged us out of the restaurant.

I decided to then go home, where I met up with Daniel Jeter and my little brother Mike. We discussed what we were going to do the next morning (it was the middle of the night at the time), and came up with a crazy plan. We were going to search for a princess named Dolores, capture her, and take her to an island where she would show us the location of buried treasure.

As the sun was still on it's way to the sky, Dan, Mike, and I journeyed to a nearby school where we hijacked a big yellow school bus. None of us knew how to drive the thing, so we just decided that Dan would be the best option because he is the oldest of the three of us. As he started up the bus, we heard police sirens. Apparently somebody had spotted us, and we were trapped.

Luckily for us, the other busses were pulling out of the school at the time, which created an intense yellow blockade that prevented the cop cars from reaching where we were. Dan then slammed on the gas, running into the rear of the bus in front of us, smashing it up severely. After a few more slams, he managed to force an opening to the road, where we made a successful getaway, thanks in part to the unsolvable maze created by the busses after we pulled out.

At that point, we forgot all about capturing the princess and just drove to the sea. On the way there, Dan drove the bus over a then opening bridge and successfully made it to the other side. When we reached the water's edge, Dan decided that it would be best just to accelerate into the water with the bus, and that is what he did.

There was a loud and confusing impact and, moments later, I was several hundred feet from the shore, holding onto a hunk of floating seat and metal, drifting toward the island.

Then I awoke.

Dream #280 (November 18, 2010)

This was so strange.

In the first part of the dream, I was assembled into a small band of special forces, put together to stop a military uprising in a dark city. The other members of the team were Kevin Chupp, Mike (my brother), and several other people I didn't know. Mike, Kevin, and I went off on our own to take care of the city park. Kevin snagged a tank and drove that around with Mike. I wasn't sure what to do, until this odd feeling came on me. I started to sparkle a little bit, then I became as light as air, and before I fully realized what was happening, I was flying around above the trees.

As I flew high in the sky, I looked down upon the city park, searching for trouble. I soon found a bunch of hoodlums shooting fireballs at cars and destroying public property, while severely injuring many people. I immediately swooped down to confront the teenagers.

They were quite the violent bunch. One picked up a fire hydrant and threw it at me, causing water to burst from the ground. I dodged the hunk of metal and came back with a flying attack. Unfortunately, I was too light to cause any harm to him. Even so, he was still surprised at my ability to fly, so I was able to fly away from him before he could capture me.

At that moment, I noticed something strange about my left arm. Near my shoulder, the hair was much thicker and darker than it had been before. Furthermore, black rubber hoses were growing from my armpit, which really disturbed me. It didn't hurt at all physically, but it was very hard on me emotionally. I looked like a freak.

Then the hoodlums began taking advantage of my mutation. I would try to fly away, but the hoses had grown long enough that they could yank me back with them and pull me to the ground. They had fun throwing me around, slamming me into the asphalt road. After a couple of painful minutes, I was saved when Kevin and Mike showed up in the monstrous tank. They began absolutely destroying the destructive devices the teens were using. The hoodlums quickly fled the scene, for Mike and Kevin were displaying a great teamwork that appeared to be unstoppable (Mike on the guns, Kevin driving).

Just then, my dream jumped ahead to after the war. It was dark, and I was wearing torn clothing. I looked like a homeless man, and probably smelled like one as well. To make matters worse, I was dragging along the long, dark rubber hoses that were rooted somehow in my left armpit, and I walked very slowly.

After some wandering, I arrived at Carrie Badertscher's house. I entered through the sliding glass doors without knocking and wandered downstairs. It was dark down there, but I could just barely see Carrie and Amber sitting on a couch, lit only by the old black-and-white movie they were watching. I said hello to them in a deep voice that didn't seem like it belonged to me. However, neither of them reacted at all. I said it a little louder. Amber didn't even put down her popcorn. As I began to turn to walk away, Carrie, without turning her head from the television, said something to me something like, "Where have you been?" "Away," I mumbled, then turned and walked back up the stairs.

When I made it to the top, my friend Jon Andrew Castleberry was there waiting for me. He looked at my armpit for a very long time, which made me feel uncomfortable. However, after he finished studying it, he told me he could help me out. His hands began to glow, then he placed his left hand on my shoulder and, with his right hand, he grabbed the black rubber hoses. They began to smoke and squeal, and with a single pull, he managed to pull all of them out. My armpit immediately returned to normal. Jon Andrew was about to throw the hoses in the trash, but I asked him to hand them to me. I grabbed them, took them back into the basement, and with a great joy (it was like the first time I was happy for a long time), I showed the removed hoses to Carrie and Amber.

Then I switched to a different dream. Interestingly enough, the dream still involved Carrie and Amber. I was with them in a small circle of grass that was surrounded all around by brick walls. Stella was also there. This is sad, but Stella, in this dream, was twice her height, Caucasian, and extremely obese. I kept telling Carrie, "This cannot be Stella," but she told me, over and over, that it was. I tried to play with her, but she could not move due to her extreme weight. I did not see the same Stella in this girl, but her mother continued to tell me it was Stella. I did not want to believe it.

Then I switched to another dream, again involving Carrie. We were sitting on thrones in a great room, along with Amber, David, and Amy (all Prairie Camp employees). The Prairie Camp counseling staff was sitting below us and telling us some of the things they had learned from the orientation we had just given them. One of the guys began to explain back to me a game I had previously told him about involving dragons and such, and he did it well. Then Katie Zook talked about proper cooking methods in the kitchen, which is interesting, because they don't do the cooking. Then, another guy began to sing a song that I had written, but he had messed up one of the verses. I knew that I had never told him about the song, so I asked him where he had heard it. He told me that he had written it, which I knew was untrue.

Then I awoke.

Dream #279 (November 13, 2010)

I've become inconsistent, but I'm still dreaming.

Last night I found myself in a large carpeted classroom. There were no desks, just wooden tables set up in a strange design that wrapped around the room. There were primarily people close to my own age or older there (sometimes much older); however, they were all supposed to be in kindergarten, while I was their teacher for the day. It was weird.

I had three assistants all dressed in Pepto Bismol-colored scrubs: Allyssa Suter, Joanna Suter, Dori Walterhouse, and Anna Pulley (most of which are nursing students at Bethel). This made the classroom feel more like a nursing home.

After I finished going through the alphabet and explaining several letters (including a, g, r, and x), my assistants and I pulled out some styrofoam plates, metal cutlery, and colorful napkins and set them in front of all the students. Then we pulled out some huge, burnt turkeys and set them in the center of each individual table. The nurses then pulled out some mashed potatoes, gravy, and rice and served it to each person as I sat down to eat with the students.

When the nurses finished serving, they sat amongst the students and assisted them when they needed it. When we had finished the meal, I pulled out a huge pot full of yellow homemade ice cream. It looked so delicious, but I prevented myself from taking very much (I only dropped one little spoonful on my plate). However, when Joanna took the pot from me to serve the rest of the students, she gave them huge portions. I kind of wanted some more, so when she was done serving everyone (including the other nurses and herself), I went over to get some more.

Then I awoke.

Dream #278 (November 10, 2010)

A dream.

I was walking around in my beach house (I don't own a beach house in real life) that I had randomly inherited from an unknown relative. I was alone, exploring various cupboards, closets, and storage spaces to see what was there. It was a neat looking place, and the view of the ocean was awesome.

As I looked at the water in the twilight, I saw a fairly large boat pull up to the dock near my house. A woman walked walked out and looked as if she was inspecting my property (she had a clipboard and was sifting the sand through her fingers and running her hands along the foundation of my house). I continued to watch her until she finally reached the deck in the back of the house.

I went out to greet her and realized that she was Cate Blanchett. She informed me that she was touring around the beach, judging the houses along it for some huge beach house contest. Apparently my house was exceptional, for she was raving about every little thing she saw. She particularly enjoyed the plants that had somehow survived around the deck, even though I had not taken care of them. She even liked some of the run-down things about the house, for she said, "The run-down look is in."

After she gave me many more compliments, Cate left me there, alone again. I watched as her boat headed for the next dock down the shore. After a while, I decided to go into the kitchen and eat a bowl of cereal.

Then I awoke.

Dream #277 (November 4, 2010)

This was interesting. And long.

The first part of the dream started in the Koontz Lake church parking lot in the middle of the night. I pulled my car into it (my car was a blue car that resembled my friend Dan's car). At the time there was only one truck in the whole parking lot, but by the time I got out of my car, several other vehicles had parked there.

When I got out, I found that my father was asleep in the truck. I tapped on the window and woke him from his slumber. He then got out, and I noticed he was wearing a long brown robe. He led me to the front of the church where I was meant with a pulsing fear in my veins.

At the front of the church I saw two lions and two tigers. One lion and one tiger were sitting just to the left of the front door of the church, and the other two were prowling around. As my dad led me to them, I often hesitated in taking the next step. Then I saw that my little brother Michael (who was his young self from ten years ago) laying helpless next to the sitting felines.

I then understood why my dad was leading me there. As we slowly and calmly (we had an outward calmness that was merely a front) approached my brother, the prowling lion and tiger walked in front of us and prevented us from going any further. I looked up and saw Michael Kaser in the distance, running away from the scene. I also saw my grandfather standing behind me, watching his son and me as we tried to save my brother.

Then I lost all calmness and sprinted past the both lions and tigers and picked my brother up off the ground. Once I did so, all four great beasts began to chase me, but something told me that, though I was sprinting as fast as I could, the beasts were letting me get away, for they did not catch up to me.

I ran behind the church and saw a crazy sight. There were all kinds of mystical creatures there;the most prominent and memorable of them all was the a great white beast, standing 30 feet tall, with a lion-shaped body, great falcon-like wings, and a beaked face with fiery eyes. The beast struck me with such a fear that I immediately took shelter in the church by entering its side door.

When I did so, I entered a maze filled with more terrifying beasts. I scrambled through the maze, trying to find a safe place. After sprinting by many giant animals, I found a shallow basement, where I briefly found safety. After relaxing in there for a short while, my grandfather found me and led me out of it, claiming that it would not remain safe much long. He then took me to a locked room. He told me to take my brother into that room, but I did not trust him, for I heard a great amount of noise coming from the room, hearing footsteps that resembled those of the tiger I had seen earlier. However, my grandfather was persistent and, eventually, he pushed me into the room.

I fell into the room, afraid of what I would find. Then my grandfather closed the door behind me. I turned the light on and had a face-to-face encounter with a cat. Not a great cat, just a small house cat.

Then I switched over to a different dream altogether.

I was at Prairie Camp. I was rushing around trying to gather up all the children there, for it was time for them to go. I was more rushed than usual, for several large military vehicles (tanks and such) were driving onto the grounds from all directions.

Finally, all the kids had gone to the front entrance, where they were to be picked up by their parents. When I was getting ready to head over there, I saw my little brother with a game of Monopoly sitting on a picnic table in front of him. I joined him, because he needed someone to play with. I began to set up the game, with his help, when I discovered that much of the money was missing, along with some of the cards. I decided to go look for them, for I thought maybe I had used them for another game.

As I searched for the missing game elements on the camp playground, I remembered I needed to go help check the kids out. I ran over to the front entrance where a large storage trailer (the kind found on semi-trucks) was sitting. I crawled inside of it and was amazed at the amount of boxes there. I never found out what they held.

When I left the storage container, I found Carrie Badertscher (my boss) with her sister Kelly at a table set up for check-out. She was telling Kelly my dream that I had the night before (Dream #278), and they were both laughing at my misfortune in the dream.

Then I entered yet another dream.

I was with my little brother Mike and our neighbor Morgan. Somehow Morgan had gotten a large wad of white chewing gum stuck in her hair (which is a reverse of a real memory; Mike once stuck a wad of gum in my hair when we were little, and Morgan's mother removed it for me). Mike and I tried my best to scrape it out, but was unsuccessful. As we tried this, Nemo (my parents' cat) jumped up on Morgan's head and liked the gum right off. Unfortunately for her, the cat saliva had turned Morgan's hair into a greasy, sticky mess.

Then I awoke.

Dream #276 (November 3, 2010)

This is short, but hopefully it will be the start of many blogged dreams.

I dreamt that I was in the basement of my parents' house talking with Dan Jeter, Jon Andrew Castleberry, and Nathan Galvez (all friends from Regent University), and we were carrying on a conversation that had taken place that night right before I went to bed (my dreams aren't usually so literal).

It was a very boring conversation. Dan kept mentioning how much homework and studying he had to do, I kept mentioning how much I loved to do those things (I really did enjoy them while I was in school), and Nathan kept mentioning how I was a ridiculous person for saying those things.

I later found myself on a street in Valparaiso, Indiana with my little brother Mike. He and I were tossing a tennis ball back and forth to each other for a very long time. We eventually came upon an old schoolhouse, where I was to put on a concert with Phil Bridges (an elderly man from Koontz Lake, IN, who plays banjo; I actually did put on a concert with him in real life). I entered the place and found a bunch of folding chairs set up, but the only person there was Phil. I then realized that I hadn't actually told anybody that the show was going to take place, so I ran out into the community and shouted out the information about the concert everywhere I went.

Unfortunately, I didn't just run into the community as I was. For some reason, I thought that I was not dressed appropriately, so I went into a bathroom to change clothes. When I walked out of the bathroom and ran outside, I discovered that I had forgotten to put my nicer clothes on after taking my other clothes off (in essence, I was naked, except for the black suspenders I was somehow wearing).

For some reason, this did not stop me from entering people's homes and trying to get them to see me perform live music (I must have been short on time).

The crazy thing is that my advertising technique worked. When I returned to the old schoolhouse, it was packed with people. I was also still naked.

Then I awoke.