A nightmare of a killer who I let torment me because it's better than being alone...
After reading a booklet of dreams about money by Wayan, Althea has four such dreams of her own
challenging family ideas of class, gender, inheritance... and then practical investment advice!...
Edgar Allen Poe confronts his dead girlfriend, who wants to drag him into the grave with her...
CAUTION: HUNGRY GHOST, SEX TALK
DAY: Friends described JW Dunne's experiments with time. I decide to look for dream elements from the future.
DREAM: I meet Oscar Wilde & other writers I dislike. A nonsense word like TELPOE or PELTOE appears...
DAY: A letter arrives full of anagrams (based on my poetry) about Oscar Wilde & other writers I dislike...
I asked my dreams why my back hurt. They told me: pregnancy, marsupial pouches, snapping turtles...
I'm a battered girl who sings in a mall. The Dictator (of all people) helps me start healing and learn to fly...
CAUTION: BATTERING AND ITS CONSEQUENT DAMAGE
I had to negotiate a salary for hosting a radio show. I'd never done such a thing. I asked my dreams.
I was shown a land of ruthless warriors with a bushido code. So I went in tough, stayed tough, and...
The Goddess won't tell me who to seek, to love, just WHAT to seek--and what not to...
CAUTION: DIVINELY SANCTIONED TRIGAMY?
Why's Jade the bitter artist throw me at her happier, calmer daughter? Wait, is Jamie the new ME?
CAUTION: SEX
Traders were vanishing. Newly installed Viceroy Zhu fasted, focused, and dreamt
the gods sent him a riddling poem. Each line suggested one word--together, they...
CAUTION: BRUTAL ORGANIZED CRIME
Flu. Ow, cramps! But that night I dream of a miner's rebellion against our fat-cat boss. Which side am I on?
I'm lost in the angry streets of Cairo. But I meet a goth-girl with moth-antennae:
a jinni who's working for longterm change. She takes me home...
CAUTION: MOTH NUDITY
Can our interspecies family survive? Our very instincts clash around solitude/boundaries, sex and incest
CAUTION: SEX, INCEST, REPRESSION/DENIAL
I asked my dreams "What's my truest purpose?"
I dreamed my body was a tree, and a voice said "Chart the growth"...
I was tired and sad and mired in routine. I asked for a dream to restore my soul.
I found myself under a tree as a chorus of gorgeous birds sang classical music...
I sought a dream of Helpers. But rather than give me gifts, they gave me a daunting challenge...
I meet a nice werewolf in a hall of past-life junk, so sharp and rusty we dare not play...
My fiancé and I got along impossibly well. I asked my dreams "Can this last?"
I dreamed we were two redwoods, happy next to one another for centuries...
I challenged my dreams to hit me with their worst. And they did...
I lead my daughter up a thorny path; she’s getting scratched. She'd rather stay in that fishing village below...
SITUATION: I was attracted to my prospective therapist. I asked my dreams what to do...
DREAM: His wife vanishes. We get in bed. I feel such love I ignore how tiny his penis is...
AFTER: In the morning, I decide I'd be wise to work with a different therapist...
CAUTION: SEX
A doorway not taken (for the most sensible of reasons) provoked a magical dream of what I missed...
An experimental helmet knocks me out. I'm groggy, miserable, till I learn what it did to others...
I ask my dreams if my dad's influencing my divorce. I dream my dad warns me "You can't ride a
motorcycle." I mount the bike and zoom down the road. I love it. When I park at last, my dad says...
I asked my dreams to show me my Shadow--what I deny. It showed me at least FIVE! And in every
time-branch, a runaway truck crushed me--the Truck of Ideology. Not that I seemed able to avoid it...
CAUTION: RECURRING DEATHS
I dream my son the writer's living above our old family store, the one that failed in the Depression...
On Christmas eve, I ask my dreams what they think of our annual orgy, and...
CAUTION: THE F WORD AND THE C WORD (CAPITALISM)
I never flew in my dreams. I felt cheated. So one day I set out to CREATE dream-flight...
1: I visit Elrond and Bilbo in Elvenhome, but overthinking traps me in a timeloop;
2: Elrond says he renounces seriousness for joy, and plans a great, inclusive party;
3: I feel unworthy, but set out on a desert quest with Elrond's young apprentice;
4: I meet joyful, drunken, singing elves but hide in a tree, too shy to join in;
5: I meet a nervous elven singer and a dolphin trapped in a tiny pool in my bedroom...
I asked my dreams if I should leave my alcoholic wife. I dreamt we were conjoined flames, green and blue.
I awoke hopeful, and knew I'd stay. For eight months my wife struggled. Now she's been sober five years...
The terror of Navy breakfast, the joy of filterfeeding,
how to marry pudding, and a sniper lunch with kisses...
I wanted spiritual guidance. A guide appeared regularly in my dreams for months, but then
vanished. I incubated a dream, and was told "you have a big job you forgot! Come back when..."
I dream my Doors of Perception have four layered screens to keep out mosquitoes, when one is plenty...
I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing
he had put together; I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out...
Previous dreamwork had made it clear my mother had betrayed me; I asked
my dreams how to protect myself from those who do not love me...
The girl I love has a family that'll stop at absolutely nothing to destroy us. But I'll fight for love...
CAUTION: SEX; EMOTIONAL VIOLENCE; MOLESTATION HISTORY
I crash my car on the way to therapy. I ask my dream why. And it tells me! Deliberate, but not suicidal...
I had a chronic illness doctors said was psychosomatic. So I saw Ani, a therapist...
I dream we're prisoners. Ani leads a successful escape, but then walks around
oblivious that her hands are still tied! I offer to untie her; she seems not to hear me.
Great in a crisis, but oblivious to chronic stuff? To me? Not the best fit...
From Hawaii to Wyoming, I fight for beauty, always waking to find I'm someone new...
My friend Cory's sore back is healed by a dream. So I ask for the same, and get this dream of incest...
CAUTION: KARMA, SEX/NUDITY, INCEST ISSUES
I asked my dreams "should I return to school?" They replied with this bizarre tale of sabotage...
CAUTION: VIOLENCE TO DUMB INSTRUMENTS
I meet the mermaid goddess of love in her pool, but when she advises me, I dispute one small point...
Can dreams have taste and smell, I wonder? That night my dreams set out to show me...
Lucid, I summon a sexy literary character. But he tries to take over my personality and make it his lucid dream...
CAUTION: VAMPIRE-SLAYING
I ask my dreams about sex, and get... sex on a beach with a sea-serpent girl--a lamia. But she gets queasy--
landsick! Too hot for her up here. Help her back in the sea. What a contrast with Ruskin's lamia nightmare...
CAUTION: SCALY SEX
My boyfriend, a leopard, sniffs out a clue to an old murder involving me in a past life. But did I witness, die, or kill?
Two jealous women symbolize Hillary Clinton & Donald Trump. Trump wants me to KILL Clinton. I lie to avoid...
CAUTION: SLEAZE? OR A SLY WAY TO PROTECT VICTIM?
A nightmare. I go lucid as the bullets tear through me. Yet I go on with the dream! Why?...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARISH VIOLENCE
I ask my dreams to evaluate my current relationship. I dream I'm vomiting up big maggots, and a mirror
shows smaller maggots eating one eye! In dream group, I ask the maggots who they are, and they say...
CAUTION: GROSS, BUT POSITIVE UNDER THE HORROR SKIN
A volcano erupts in San Francisco! No human could survive the blast, but one researcher does--what IS he?
DAY: I read an exposé on "Senoi dreamwork"--the Malaysian Senoi people disavow it. Some white guy just made it up!
DREAM: I'm a dream researcher in Malaysia. A manta-squid attacks! Now the "Senoi" focus on my needs makes sense...
CAUTION: TENTACLE-RAPE ATTEMPT
I dreamt of a better translation of Nebuchadnezzar's name, since universally accepted...
I dreamt a priest of old Nippur told me two agate pieces, long separated, formed a pair...
Should I subscribe to Sundance Community Dream Journal? I dream I find a letter--yellowish paper, cryptic blue
lettering, a red margin. I eat it! Best thing I ever tasted. I wake and order that journal. It arrives--and the cover is...
The foul old fossil woman had carved and burnt her own flesh in the name of art;
we washed her till she was reborn young. It was my turn next to enter the water...
ALYSE dreams Tim drives a motorcycle-book up a hill, but she doesn't LIKE riding so fast...
TIM dreams a wise woman tested him, but found him unqualified to play teacher to Alyse...
Why does my passport have color photos of me ice skating? I haven't in years. Your
passport must show your true face. Should I change it, or do they know me better than...
CAUTION: SHAMANIC SYNCHRONICITY
I wished I could kiss my son farewell. That week, Ethel called. "I dreamed Ned kissed you, not me!
I was hurt. He laughed like anything and kissed me too..."
I dream the new Dalai Lama's a kind woman who gives me startling health advice
AND shows me how to fly. The next day...
My sister Miriel asks me to ask my dreams if it's safe for her to get cataracts removed.
I find myself in her body, biking at night--near-blind. Surgery has risks, but this is riskier!
My own fear creates a field of time/speed distortion; can I use it against my attackers?
After asking "Am I ready to say yes to someone new?" I dreamed I met my old love...
I hung the dream-net over my bed. It worked. A blue-winged man with a leg of silver came to me,
drummed, danced, offered to teach me secrets. Awake, I found a blue feather caught in that net...
Why don't I push for more art shows? I asked how I feel at shows of my own work, and this came out...
I slept on an island in a scalding hot spring, praying for a dream. I got one--and woke up on the shore...
A suspicious exobiologist warns me that otter from Titan may not be the amiable, nerdy celebrity it seems. But...
On a trip, lonely, I induced dreams about my fiancé Steve, hoping I could visit him
out-of-body. On the one night I succeeded, he abruptly felt my presence while awake...
Ann had inflamed ovaries and faced surgery. She asked her dreams for a second opinion. She dreamt of voices and images saying
"there's plenty of time for all this." She bathed peacefully in a river, meditated, gave easy birth to an infant, climbed a ladder to
her law degree. She woke cured. Her next doctor said "you must've been misdiagnosed; you just thought you were in pain."
CAUTION: SEXIST GASLIGHTING
I bike deep into Time Hall, barging through security gates of amnesia, to climb the midden of the past...
Hypnotized in therapy, I saw AT LEAST five competing goals tugging at me like gravity fields.
Naturally I drew them. Come tour the Inner Solar System of our desires...
CAUTION: NUDITY (BODY, HEART, BRAIN, SOUL)
"I saw in a dream a table where all the elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down..."
All the claymation figures I made in my teens are gone but one. And the centauress has a broken hip
and spindly leg. I start to mend her, but I need TWICE the clay I thought...
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY
Day: Why did I get sick from figure-sketching? Guilt?
Dream: I'm at a group wedding; shall I wed a dwarf, a feral boy or a horse?
I asked "I'm still scared to date anyone. Why? What's my next step?" That night, I was answered...
CAUTION: SEXUAL IMPLICATIONS
I asked my dreams why I had no more sexual desire for my rage-prone boyfriend. I dream
a nature show says "Rabid dogs can't be cured" and shows the horrible wounds they inflict...
CAUTION: THERAPIST TRIVIALIZES URGENT DREAM-WARNING
Suddenly I hate and fear black kids in school! The counselor says I'm clinically paranoid: I need drugs!
My dad says "How strange, how sad." And goes home to light a candle at his shrine to the Confederacy...
CAUTION: INDUCED RACISM
My friend Chris gets tied up at the office--that’s his job, looking martyred! But when the boss is away...
CAUTION: NUDITY
In the Cave of the Ant Ambassador, I meet his mate, a beautiful translucent fox named
Raethe. Way happier with her mate (& body!) than in that dream just two months ago...
1: My dad can't see my world. Literally can't see my world...
2: The House of Busyness is unlivable--busy, crowded, noisy...
3: Achievement takes twelve factors; any one can block you...
I dream of a therapist who allows kids to regress to crying babies; they take weeks
to re-mature to face the present. Will it work for me? Can't see why not...
Blake was broke. Couldn’t typeset Songs of Innocence and Experience.
But in a dream, his brother advised him...
After a living Barbie doll dies while campaigning for niceness, I find myself invoking her
to shock people into decent behavior: "In the Name of Saint Barbie!"...
CAUTION: BARBIE, UNICORNS, IMPLICIT TRUMP CRITIQUE
I always kept a guitar and tape recorder by my bed. I wake up and see the tape's run to the very end.
I ran it back to the start and there, in a sort of ghostly version, was...
Three successive attacks! I escape the Roadrage Nut, I withstand the mob of Angry
Ghosts, but the Tsunami floods all. Strange--that angry, glowing, blue Sea-Sphinx
who summoned the flood is really sexy. Why is she mad at me?...
I ask my dreams how to find love. I dream of a 1920s bohemian girl
teasing stuffy folk. But her pranks turn dangerous, then deadly...
After moving in with Gemina, Matt suddenly had erectile dysfunction. He asked
his dreams why. He dreamt he was a kid being bullied by his big sister Cindy...
Atop a sea-cliff, I meet a young couple in love. One look at me and they
push me off! When I see I can't save myself, I try to take them with me...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARE BARING UGLY TRUTHS
Day: Robert Bly's book Iron John, claiming men need male mentors, annoys me.
Dream: the giants co-opted Captain Picard of Star Trek, but we don't need him to rebel...
CAUTION: MOCKS ROBERT BLY
Stevenson’s dreams changed over decades: from childhood nightmares into
creative collaborators dreaming whole stories...
My friend Tanya tries hard to save her marriage, but in her dreams Isidora Duncan,
Carl Jung, even the gods themselves warn her to face their deep incompatibility...
The card of intuition, dreams--and asking. She knows all the secrets. And might just tell you, if...
A black separatist commune hides two little girls who are psychokinetic.
They fear I'll expose them. But I've spent my whole life passing too...
CAUTION: PARAPSYCHOLOGY, RACIAL SEPARATISTS
Gunmen held me hostage in a grand hall; at last they shot me. Next day: the Moscow Theater hostages...
In therapy, I'm wrestling with sex. But workmen invade--hammer & hang pictures. MY pictures!
And my therapist keeps confusing me and her, and our sexual orientations! She means well, but...
CAUTION: NUDE PORTRAIT
I was barren. I asked Asklepios, God of Healing, to make me pregnant. Soon I was--for 3 years, until...
In 1985 I was flooded with nightmares about heads and necks. They had an unparalleled intensity...
That day: I read of a young healer in rural Indonesia harassed by the local mullah.
That night: I dream she leads a revolution on a starship against her elders...
In a world where speech is in Mayan glyphs, comedian Tina Fey (dressed for prom night)
climbs a Tibetan peak to learn levitation. But the flying monks are scared of women...
CAUTION: COOTIES; ROWDY JESUS; MAY FLUNK THE BECHDEL TEST
I ask how my relationship with Scott was going. That night he asks me to sail on the Titanic. I say
"That ship will sink!" but he won't listen. I see a skeleton-baby and know I have even more to lose...
CAUTION: NIGHTMARE, UNFIT DAD, ABORTION
Stuck in a horror movie, I get to meet the triceratops-headed monster
who scriptwrites all my nightmares. But he's open to suggestions...
In an idle moment I held a pencil and asked the air who'd win the Derby.
'Trigo' meant nothing to me, but was listed at 32 to 1, so...
I meet a woman named "2-0-1-0", realize that pronunciation means it's not base ten, but
mistake it for binary. Not with a 2 in it! It's trinary, and hides a diagnostic message...
I'm an exchange student at the Solar System's best university for
the magic arts; my classmates are methane-breathing foxtaurs...
In Castle Frankenstein, will Mary Shelley wed Elmer Fudd? His two-headed monster has marital advice...
Our landlady was a friend, but she broke our rental agreement. Talk, compromise, or rent strike?
I ask to see my past lives, and dream of a viewpoint where I can--but this Mormon ranger...
I'm a one-legged hopping hermit in the ruins of LA, and my only hope
for love is to conjure up a girl out of a trout and a puppy...
I'm stuck on a runaway bus. So we decide to picture the axle falling off, and
it obeys! But the bus zooms on, carried by a horde of little animals...
CAUTION: ESP SKEPTICS WILL LOATHE THE AFTERWORD (true story, though)
Here's an incantation to induce flying dreams. "Bring me wings NOW, or forever hold your peace..."
DREAM: Witchmare the sorceress patiently wins over Twilight, a unicorn who thought she was straight.
NEXT NIGHT: at a queer picnic, I find I know my orientation--witches! But I'm less sure what sex I am...
CAUTION: LESBIANS, UNICORNS, FANART, COMPLEXITY
DAY: while traveling, Zhuangzi found a skull. Wondering how it had lived and died, he slept on it.
DREAM: the skull answered him! It told of death, which the skull found preferable to mortal life...