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The Power of Names

Dreams on the power of true names--or of the act of naming. Or, in a few remarkable dreams, of being named truly, by someone in your dream.

RELATED TOPICS: language - souls - shamanism - alter egos and doubles - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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AI ZHONG!: by Wayan; 1989/7/21, a short psychic dream
A small, clear, simple precognitive dream... and its un-small, un-clear, un-simple cause...
ALCOHOLIC CAT: by Montague Ullman's patient, 1950/2/24, an eavesdropping dream
PATIENT: I dreamt of a dangerous cat and a mixture of cream and booze called 'appealing nausea'...
THERAPIST: I heard a lecture on feeding alcohol to cats til they choose milk laced with booze...
CAUTION: WILL BOTHER E.S.P. SKEPTICS
ALICE'S POEM: by Lewis Carroll; 1872, a poem on dreams
Are dreams really so ephemeral? Lewis Carroll, who built the Alice books from dream-shards, wasn't so sure...
ANAGRAMMAGIC: by Robert Graves, 1938 or 39, a possibly telepathic dream
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...
ART ENVY: by Roz Chast, before 2023/9/18, an insecurity-baring dream
I dream I'm reading an amazing comic about a bright red geometric dog named Question,
floating through surreal landscapes. I'm envious--until I wake in relief that it's just a dream!
ARTIE SHAW: by John Wren-Lewis, 1971/8/17?, a comic predictive dream
DREAM: I write a book involving spies and Lord Snow, but give him a cover name: Artie Shaw.
TWO WEEKS LATER: My wife & I go on the Tonight Show; unexpectedly, Artie Shaw shows up!
I tell him the dream. He turns pale, saying "No one knows this--I wrote a book under the name..."
CAUTION: WILL BOTHER E.S.P. SKEPTICS
BATTUTA'S DREAM: by Ibn Battuta, 1325, a predictive or career-advice dream
DREAM: a great bird carries me to Mecca, Yemen, India, the south sea islands, China, the snowy north...
AWAKE: My host says it means I'll travel the world--but he adds "in India, my brother will save your life"...
BITTER TRANSFORMATIONS: by Selena; 2017/10/18, a diagnostic gender identity dream
I finally admit who I am, and the truth is bitter...
CAUTION: GENDER DYSPHORIA, MENTION OF COPROPHAGY, POSSIBLE SITCOM SPOILER
BLUNDERING LINDA: by Wayan; 1987/7/12, a namedropping predictive sex dream
I'm in bed with a witch and a piano who's come alive and wants to try sex with us. But I worry a stranger named
Linda will break in. I wake, write the dream--and a stranger breaks into our house seeking her son! Her name's...
CAUTION: BIZARRE THREESOME, BIZARRE PRECOGNITION
THE BOATMEN OF LAOLONG: by Viceroy Zhu, before 1679, as told by Pu Songling; an incubated dream
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
BOYS DON'T CRY: by Wayan; 2000/1/7, twin sex nightmares reacting to a movie seen two days later!
DREAM 1: My date Lana changes to my housemate Alder to my dead friend Beryl, who talks of pastlife trauma...
DREAM 2: Sexy deer-girls and ice dancers get me and my sister hot, but a ghost disrupts impending incest...
TWO DAYS LATER: I see Boys Don't Cry--settings, situations, characters & even names from my dream!
CAUTION: DEER BREASTS, NEAR-INCEST, FILM ON TRANNYCIDE
CARSON: by Kitty Ostrander; 1991/6/23; an apparent clairvoyant dream
I DREAM: I'm at the scene of a fatal car crash. They thought it was Johnny Carson, but it's his brother Dick.
I WAKE: On the news: Johnny Carson's son Dick died in a car crash. The scene looks like my dream...
CAUTION: WILL TROUBLE E.S.P. SKEPTICS
CELEBRITY ATTACK!: by Pierre Dalcourt, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a complex dream on celebrity
As a mob of Hollywood stars beats me up, I ask for autographs--and get them.
I sell the autographs to fund a statue of the beating--but with me smiling...
CHANGES, or, A WHISPER OF RESISTANCE: by Wayan; 1980/9/25, a dream of identity-chaos.
An identity earthquake that just wouldn't stop. I transform half a dozen times, and so does everyone else...
CIRCUS GIRL: by Wayan; 1993/1/10, a dream of love and trouble.
I fall for a circus girl. Her brother is jealous, so all the dwarves show up with guns...
CAUTION: INCEST ISSUES
CLAIRE'S NAMES: by Wayan, 1998/1/11, a dream of love and pushing limits.
My skateboard-riding mermaid girlfriend and I bind ourselves together by the magical power of names...
COUNT COUP!: by Plenty Coups, 1857; a child's defining dream
I sought a dream of Helpers. But rather than give me gifts, they gave me a daunting challenge...
CRANE CRASH: by Anonymous #33; pre-1961, a predictive dream with a crucial hole
The crane toppled and fell onto the riverbank. I saw the number, but not if the operator got free...
A CROOKED BAND: by Wayan; 1996/8/21, a dream of chutzpah.
A spinoff band sues the original group for playing their own songs and using their own name...
THE CRYPT: by Kathleen Raine, between 1965 & '71; a chthonic dream poem
Holding a luminous crystal sword, I enter a crypt where a king lies--ill, not dead.
An old woman wants to punish him, but as he stirs, I sheathe my sword...
DEAD OR ALIVE? by Nancy Price; 1948, a surreal, poetic dream from the borderzone
Troutmet the moon-pigeon, Burtra the blackbird, a talking acacia,
my dead father and my dead gardener all give me afterlife-advice...
DEATH DATE: by Jim Shaw; 1994 (early?), a possibly predictive shamanic dream
I become a werewolf and climb into a strange attic. I find a grave marker for
an old friend--but her death date is two years in the future...
DECLARING INDEPENDENCE: by Patricia Garfield c.1946, Fiona '51, Lenore '58 & Helen '62
Four teens dream their moms are monsters: Patricia sees hers as a demonic doll, Fiona finds
her mom's a wolf, Lenore's is a grinning vampire, and Helen's is a bossy, punitive octopus...
DEERMAN'S CHALLENGE: by Melissa McClanahan, 2002?-2007?, a recurring nightmare figure
I used to dream of this violent anthropomorphic being. At times I'd put on his deer-skull head
and become him, inflicting and inciting violence. Naming him gave me some control...
DELBOEUF'S FERN by Joseph Delboeuf; 1862; the first cryptomnesic dream quoted by Freud.
Delboeuf, ignorant of botany, dreams of feeding lizards a fern called Asplenium ruta muralis;
years later he finds both lizards and fern in books he read and forgot years before the dream...
DEVANGELS: by Wayan, 2017/4/27, a numinous but ambivalent dream
After a hard day in the recording studio, I dream of powerful yet obedient devil-angels;
quiet for now, but I fear they'll decide shamans like me are abominations...
CAUTION: ANGELS? GOLEMS? DEVILS?
DICKENS AND CAFTAN: by Anonymous #55, 1970/12/24 & 29, predictive dreams
CAFTAN: My ultra-conservative brother wears a caftan. No way!
I woke amused. But later that day, he gave me a Christmas present...
DICKENS: A voice rants "I love Dickens! It has to be Dickens!"
Next evening on Night Gallery, Agnes Moorehead begs for...
DISTRACTUS: by Wayan, 2004/5/5, a comic sexy diagnostic dream... that baffled me.
Sex in a meadow? A protest march distracts us. But a friend warns me of a disease, Coitus Distractus...
CAUTION: (DISTRACTED) SEX
DO YOU LOVE ME, JOHN?: by Wayan; 1991/7/6, a dream on the courage of the shy.
I dream of a future where blondes are a too-cute endangered species. How can they survive? Like this...
CAUTION: NUDITY
DOG OR... KITTY?: by Cory and Wayan, 2019/5/1, shared predictive dreamlets.
Wayan dreams of petting an adorable cat-dog. The same night...
Cory dreams of meeting an adorable dog-cat. Later that day...
At the beach, Cory meets a woman with a dog named... Oh. You guessed.
DOPPELBRUDER: by Wayan; 1985/5/9, a dream of a self at war over... labels?
Lured to a parallel, feudal world by a marriage-vow, I'm trapped in my double's arrogant, twisted mind...
EBON EBON THALUD: by Samuel Coleridge; 1800/11/28, a nightmare struggle leaving physical traces.
Ebon Ebon Thalud, a woman blended with darkness, tries to gouge out my right eye. I wake screaming. My right eyelid...
EDITH KEELER: by Wayan, 1975/10/8, an incubated dream giving multiple answers
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
EIGHT TO A HORN: by Wayan; 1986/4/25, a magical dream, Chapter 7 of UNICORN TAG.
In the middle of Nowhere Desert, I meet a telepathic unicorn who's stuck with a false safety-tag...
EMPRESS AND PIG: by Doug Williams; 2006/10/10, a dream of romantic beginnings
A pig led me off my path to meet a lady. I told her my true name, and felt something shift...
EQUESTRIAN NUNAVUT: by Wayan, 2017/4/27, a dream of a utopia in an unlikely place
After a hard day in the recording studio, I dream of our wiser successors,
after we drown America: the sentient equines of Greenland and Nunavut...
CAUTION: SKINNYDIPPING UNICORNS
ERMINE, or, GOTHMOG'S GHOST: by Wayan, 1984/2/11, a gender-bent & species-bent warning dream
I'm a delicate little ermine-chinchilla whose best friends are all sewer rats.
They push their food and drink on me, and I nibble to be polite...
THE ERTHEDNI: by Wayan, 1977/1/8, three transformation dreams, the last with advice
1: I'm starving in a lush valley; a cult claims all the food, the water, even the air.
2: I'm drowning in a cage but find a corner with water I can breathe--just barely.
3: I'm a merman with a wise friend who hints I need to leave those who starve & drown me...
CAUTION: DOMESTIC BATTERING (OFFSTAGE)
THE EVEREST MARATHON: by Wayan; 1986/4/12, a wild dream epic, part 3 of Unicorn Tag.
In the great race up Everest, I become an e-snake, cross 3 eco-bubbles, beg a
wary deer-taur to splice my spine, help Ariane my childhood crush, and solve
the Dream Equations. Climbing Everest takes not strength but... trust?
FAR ALONG IN THE STORY: dreamed 2009 or before, by W.S. Merwin; a surreal dream poem
The flock of cranes called to the boy but he could not hear what they were telling him...
A FILM-ORIENTED DREAM: by William Desowitz, spring 1980; dream collaging four diverse movies
I fondle the noses of two masked girls in red leotards--parodying part of a Clockwork Orange...
I'm excited to see Last Year at Marienbad, but either the actors mumble or the sound is bad...
Night. I fly, as in Fellini's , but out of control. The wind takes me, I'm terrified...
My grandmother attacks me with her crab-claw, then retreats, chanting the film title Shoeshine!
FOX AND THE EYE OF GOD: by Wayan; 1984/8/14, a predictive mythic dream
DREAM: I hike up my Career Path into the hills. On a snowfield,
a bird and a fox create the eye of God, who banishes all evil!
NEXT DAY: I read a novel full of images out of the dream...
GEOMETRY OF DAWN: by Bruce Kawin, c.1983, a sexy metaphysical dream?
My anima sends me on peculiar journeys--smoke rings, islands, conversations with a stone--
but at last it's just us. She has something more she wants to teach me. On that bed...
CAUTION: ASTRAL COME-ON
GOOGLE DREAMS: by Michael Flora; early 2010, three (psychic? cryptomnesic?) dreamlets on names
After an article suggests we roam the multiverse in sleep, I dream of three strange names. Awake, I google them...
HANGING CAR: by Frank Whitaker, Jan. 1935, three coincidences, synchronicities or psychic hits
I grope for the name of an island. I dream I crash a car on a bridge; it hangs with one wheel over. I wake & recall a friend who moved to Canada.
Breakfast. That island's on the front page. Inside's a photo of that hanging car. A letter comes--the first from my Canadian friend in years.
Each might be coincidence, but what do we call it when coincidence goes on and on?
HAWKING COUNTRY: by Wayan; 1994/2/3, a quantum-level dream.
I read Stephen Hawking, and dream I'm in the Quantum Desert, full of bridges, holes & loops--
like the microstructure of spacetime. But it's not counter-intuitive at all--it's HOME!
HERE IN MY IMPOVERISHED PSYCHE: by Tracey West, 1987? 88?, recurring nightmares
I'm Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island. But the theme song repeats endlessly--not the later version with
my name, but the early one dismissing me and the Professor as and the rest. I wake up screaming...
HOGAMUS HIGAMUS: by Mrs Amos Pinchot, or Claire MacMurray? Nov. 1939, a disavowed dream-poem.
She dreamed she'd written a wise and beautiful poem. Half asleep she scribbled it down. Awake, she found...
CAUTION: HOGGEREL
HOPE: by Elsie Sechrist's student; c.1973, the ultimate punning dream.
A student of Elsie Sechrist reports a dream in which Bob Hope came jumping
down the street on a pogo stick, expressing the dreamer's feeling that...
HOW THE WAYAN GOT ITS NAME: by Wayan, 1986/5/23, a predictive dream on names (& manes)
A telepathic unicorn-lion says my true name is Wayan. And my true species? I'm like him!
I wake, change my name to fit the dream, move to a new city. Near my new house,
my dream-name is scratched into the concrete sidewalk...
HUNTERS: by Emily Y. Chan, c.2020/12/12, 2024/3/23, and 2024/4/13, paintings of recurrent dreams
First I met an assassin girl who could raise dust storms; then a monster-hunted named Rho;
then I was the hunter, with a futuristic hovercycle and low-tech bow and arrows...
THE HYPOTHALAMUS: by Georges Perec; October 1971, a dream of embarrassment. Dream #95
I learn my book A Void, supposedly written without the letter E, has lots of them--
crawling with errors. But at least I can spy on the neighbors...
IF ONLY I COULD: by Rick Veitch, c.1995, an eerie underground dream
Soil turns to air for me; I float in the dark between tree roots
and stones, thinking "If only I could remember my name"...
INGENIOUS ADVERTISEMENTS: by Elizabeth Kew; 1930s?, a cynical dream come true.
My friend put an ad on her gown, so I try one on our house. I have big ideas for more, but a pickpocket...
JUMBLE by Nancy Price; 1948, a comically exaggerated predictive dream
A bewildering dream of a boy's borrowed bath, absconding renters' furniture and fly-eating turns real a few weeks later...
KOLCHEC: by Al Davison (Jan.1977-1978) & Sara Welponer 2000, sketches of a shared dream-figure
AL repeatedly drew a bizarre, recurring dream-guide named Kolchec; years later he met
SARA, who'd painted her dream-guide, a distinctive spook named--oh, take a guess...
CAUTION: WILL DISTURB ESP SKEPTICS
LAING SAYS: by Wayan, 1983/2/10; a cluttered, comic, goofy predictive dream
DREAM: I run into a couple I know. I get gridlocked. R.D. Laing gives me a transpersonal message.
DAY: I bump into that couple, get gridlocked, and hear R.D. Laing speak on transpersonal messages...
LI BAI'S PEN: by poet Li Bai and his mother, 700 & c.715 CE, three prophetic / career-advice dreams
Li Bai's mother dreams of Venus shining, and names her unborn son Bai, 'white'. She dreams he'll ride a
red dragon, too: greatness, but what kind? Li Bai when young dreams the answer: his brushpen flowers!
LONG JOHNS by Ann Faraday, 1972; punning dreamlets on two consecutive nights
DREAM 1: A man wearing long white underwear shoots me down with a machine gun.
DAY: Long John Nebel interviews me; his Freudian friend calls me a penis-envying woman.
DREAM 2: Long John and his buddy umpire a rough baseball game. Definitely not cricket...
CAUTION: SEXISM, FREUDIANS, PUNS
LUCID FLIGHT TO VALHALLA: by Paul W. Coca; 1991/4/5, a lucid flying sex dream
I realized I was dreaming, and flew. My friends were skeptical and held me down a while, but
soon I had them flying too. At a party in Valhalla, I made love with a mer-angel named Ealswa...
LUNCH WITH THE STARS: by Wayan; 1981/2/2, a dream on beliefs.
I'm in a loving animal dance troupe, but wake to find I'm alone.
For consolation, I eat at The Terrace, and meet stars. Not film stars...
LYIN' WAYAN: by Wayan; 1996/4/10, a warning nightmare.
A mob of kids chases me chanting "Lyin' Wayan!" I get dizzy and fall off a bridge... THEN comes trouble!
CAUTION: FATAL FALL
THE MAN WHO DESERVED TO DIE: by Jim Shaw; c.1994; a dream of moral rescue
I don't want to kill my friend, though his clothes say I must. But
a sculptor lets us sit on her metal trees and drink tea instead...
MARCOUX'S DREAMS: by Shirley Marcoux, 75/11/4, 76/4/2, 4/28 & 6/24; & one by Cheryl, 76/4/3
Four apparently psychic dreamlets of a gun in a desk, a guy needing to hide,
a canyon with woodpiles & a locked gate, and a blonde girl named Cathy...
CAUTION: SMALL DREAMS, LARGE IMPLICATIONS FOR E.S.P.
A MAREOTIC QUARREL: by Wayan, 2018/10/10; a dreamlet about truth & experts
My friend Lily misuses the word 'Mareotic'; I know, because I once saw it in a Yeats poem, thought
the footnote explaining it was fishy, checked it myself, and found the editors hadn't even bothered to...
MARVEL PATROLS: by Rick Veitch; c.1995; a punning nightmare on being an independent cartoonist
The comics industry degenerates into civil war. We peddle all night to avoid the Marvel...
THE MATING GAME: by Wayan; 1992/3/18, a dream of spillover.
A TV crew invades the house, setting up for a special. I didn't expect to see a president on the work crew...
MEM LOI'S SEARCH WARRANT: by Wayan; 2023/4/2, a dream of my own immune system?
My home's a huge maze. Find a clinic and a cafe. Cops appear, & claim I'm a woman named Mem Loi
& confiscate weird masks off our walls. Ugly masks, so who cares? Wait, one looks like a covid virus...
CAUTION: DREAMER'S A DOORMAT
MESOPOTAMIAN RINGS: by Herman Hilprecht, Jan.-Mar. 1883; two problem-solving dreams
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...
MINOS, EAQUE AND RHADAMANTHE: by James Joyce, c. 1934/7/8, a short, precise, predictive nightmare
Joyce, in Paris, dreamed he was attacked by three madmen, Minos, Eaque and Rhadamanthe. Three weeks later,
a madman mailed explosive packages around Paris--signed Minos, Eaque and Rhadamanthe, the Judges of Hell...
THE MIRANDA OATH: by Wayan; 1998/2/24, a subtly predictive political dream.
Strange oaths are proposed for the first expedition to the Uranian moon Miranda...
MISS NAPIER: by Charles Dickens, probably 1840s, a brief, specific predictive dream
I dream I meet a lady in red named Miss Napier. I know no such person. Senseless! Next evening,
after I read onstage, friends enter my dresssing room to introduce me to the lady in red--Miss...
MISTRESS TOOTHSMOOTH: by Yves Delage, 1915/1/20, an early anima dream
I'm in the cellar, petting a tiger-cat. She speaks inside my head: "I'm tired of living on bread. I need meat."
I make excuses--it's pricy--then see big hanging quarters of meat. I hide them! She says "Call me Mistress
Touttmouss"--well, something like that--I know it's English, but can't make it out til I wake, when I see...
MITHRAN'S LAKE: by Wayan; 1988/1/17, a predictive dream justifying personal reserve.
DREAM: Gay boys, underage girls & my own sister all mock me, sure I want their forbidden sexual fruit
at a beach where grotesque trees make their own precipitation and salt-dunes spill into saturated, toxic brine...
NEXT DAY: I read Margaret Atwood's The Salt Garden--sex, guilt, and grotesque trees in saturated, toxic brine.
CAUTION: SEXUAL GUILT, EXHIBITIONIST TWEENS, APPARENT E.S.P.
MY EX-WIFE: by Wayan; 1982/3/23, a dream on delusions--and maybe ESP
A woman with two teenagers breaks in and says she's my ex-wife and they're my kids.
I'm in my twenties; I CAN'T have teenage kids. And I have no ex-wife! Just my girlfriend Cassandra.
Forty years later it all makes sense. It's not about me then, but John now...
CAUTION: ADULT THEMES--TRULY STUPID ADULT THEMES. E.S.P., TOO.
MY NINE SELVES: by Wayan, 2023/7/18; a dream hinting at a new phase in life
Strangers ask me about my nine selves, and I find I know exactly what they mean!
The last three are new and odd--calm quiet states that heighten paranormal senses...
CAUTION: MYSTICAL
NAMED: by Kathleen Raine, between 1981 & '87; a mystical dream poem
A voice calls to me by name--but not the name I now bear, evoking memories of another life...
NAMELESS HAT: by Elizabeth Kew; 1930s?, a comic dream.
Giant worms put me on trial for wearing a nameless hat, but I like their punishment so I taunt the judge...
NANCY AND KIT: by Wayan; 1994/1/3, a dream about mislabeling.
In a psychodrama scene, I try to stop a furious guy from hitting an exhibitionist girl. But I'm bleeding...
NEUTRALITY'S ROOMMATE: by Emily Joy; 2007/4/19, a spooky dream.
At our commune's new house, pandemonium breaks out when
our matriarch meets a spook. Can we live together in peace?
NISROCK: by Dolores, 2001 or earlier; a predictive dream
DREAM: a man tries to break into my house. I call for help; the operator says "Oh, that's Nisrock."
DAYS LATER: I open a book on the unconscious. It says Nisrock was a Babylonian god of dreams...
CAUTION: BAD MYTHOGRAPHY
NUCLEUS: by Wayan, 1979/3/18, a surreal dream of character-insight, set inside an atom
I dream my theatre friends are particles dancing inside an atomic nucleus--
particles that reveal their character, motivations and power. And I'm one too...
OLD ADAM: by Robert Southey; 1804/12/7, a comic dreamlet.
I meet the original Adam. He complains Eve neglects him, but he hopes to meet one of his cleverer descendants...
OLD AND IN THE WAY: by Wayan; 1999/5/3, a veiled predictive dream.
On the street called Old And In The Way, I meet a psychic I crushed on as a kid,
and then, in a hearth, fight the tentacled alien who's been stalking me...
PAPA: by Hélène Cixous; 1996/5/15; a revenant dream on workaholism
I'm in my papa's waiting room. I beg him to take a break from his patients now that he's dead, and walk with me...
PASSIONVILLE: by Wayan; 1982/7/10; a surreal dream written as a poem
We're stuck in an empty town whose streetnames are all emotions. And they change.
Rage becomes Giggle. Tedium, Terror! Devious town...
MR. PERCEVAL'S MURDER: by John Williams; 1812/5/2-3, a recurrent predictive dream.
Thrice I saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer shot in the House of Commons. I nearly went to London...
THE PLAY: by Georges Perec; February 1972, a dream with the attention span of a gnat. Dream #108
I'm in a play. Fear, then joyful sex, then ranching, then silly hats, as a man drones on about
class struggle. Weird chairs, pingpong, coffee, impossible double utterances. At last
I tell friends my dream--backwards. Then I write the dream down on slices of cheese...
CAUTION: SEX ONSTAGE
POLYGAPO: by a Washington woman, fall 1951, a detailed unlikely predictive dream
I sat thinking "Now that boy will jump the fence"--and he did; "that boy will chase the dog"--and he did...
PONDICHERRY: by Toni Emrich, 1991/6/6, and Margaret Thomas, 1991/7/??, linked asynchronous dreams
EMRICH: I'm in a conference center in "Pondecherry", even though it feels nothing like India...
THOMAS: A woman picks fruit off a tree by a pond and calls them "pondicherries--with an 'i'"...
CAUTION: WILL ANNOY E.S.P. DENIERS
"POOR MRS TIMMS!": by JD Beresford's 4-year-old son, Jan/Feb 1918
Our son woke in the night crying "Poor Mrs Timms; poor Mrs Timms!" We knew no
such woman, but it turned out she lived nearby. That day, her son had died in France...
CAUTION: IMPLIES WE'RE TRAINED OUT OF A 6TH SENSE
REBORN IMMORTAL: by Reneta Scian; 2010/1/3, a three-stage flying dream
First I try to break the sound barrier like my girlfriend. Nope!
Then I fly slowly to her apartment. Nothing flashy, but I make it.
Last, I zoom back to ancient China, where I find a candle-lit shrine dedicated to... me?
RED TO GREEN: by Patricia Garfield, c.1950, a punning advisory dream
DREAM: I see the leaves outside turning from red to green, not green-to-red as usual in fall.
AWAKE: I've been dating two boys called Red and Green. Guess my dreams have chosen...
RONALD'S FORBIDDEN FIELD: by Ronald, patient of Jan Ehrenwald, before 1954, a telepathic dream?
DREAM: a distinctive house with a tempting green field by it. But the field's forbidden...
DAY: Ronald's analyst had rented that house--but the adjacent field was forbidden...
CAUTION: E.S.P. THEORIES
SAINT BARBIE: by Wayan; 2016/6/19, a dream of a meme we need
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
ROWLAND'S DREAM: by R. J. Rowland, 1790s? a dream of a useful ghost.
DAY: Rowland needed papers for a legal case, but couldn't find where his father had stashed them.
DREAM: his long-dead dad told R.J. a lawyer R.J. he'd never heard of had them, 'but the man may need
some reminding', and gave details of Portuguese gold and a drinking bout. Next day, it worked. But how?
CAUTION: GHOST? E.S.P.?
SAMPHIRE: by Wayan, 2022/12/25; apparent cryptomnesia, ESP, or both
I wake up dreamnesic but singing a nonsense line about "samphires"--whatever
they are. Half an hour later, I encounter the word for the first time in 45 years...
SELF-CENSOR?: by Wayan; 2022/11/4, an art-dream about dreams themselves
I'm in an art class drawing a dream image--a dog-taur or wolf-taur girl.
But I hesitate to draw her flashing me as she did in the dream. Should
I risk offending half my class, or make her modest and innocuous?
CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY
SEVERED HEAD: by Dr. Walter Prince, 1917/11/27, a detailed predictive nightmare
DREAM: a thirtyish blonde says her death is ordered. Her head's cut off. But it won't die--bites his hand!
Dr. Prince feels the dream shouts "premonition!" and writes an account at the Society for Psychical Research.
Next night, a thirtyish blonde nearby commits suicide, leaving a note saying her severed head will live on...
CAUTION: CREEPY DREAM, CREEPIER NEWS
SHROPSHIRE: by Wayan; 1985/1/6, a predictive warning dream
DREAM: chased by a sniper, I trick him into blowing himself up. Then, in the Watchtower,
I know every name & address in Shropshire, but must hide them till all the snipers are caught...
NEXT DAY: at work I run across a book with every name and address in 17th-century Shropshire...
CAUTION: FATAL EXPLOSION
SPOTTED FAWN DODGES ARROWS: by Amanda Strong; 1998, a dream on the power of names
Soon after I was given the name Spotted Fawn, I dreamed I was one,
fleeing faceless hunters under the full moon. There's history in this...
SPRINTERS AND SPHINX: by Wayan; 2009/11/13, a dream poem.
Divers made of ice win the Traffic-Leaping Olympics. But
I think they cheated! I seek my friend the Sphinx...
STEPHENSON AND BELL: by Matthew Talbot; 1768, a recurring predictive dream.
A man in a blue coat on a white horse delivered papers from a nearby wrecked ship, signed Stephenson and...
THE STONE BRIDGE: by JL; 1968, as told to Georges Perec; a surreal, haiku-ish dreamlet. Dream #39
A stone bridge, at the crossing of a road and a river. A signal sign indicates the name of the place: (YOU)...
SUVY & JOHN DOE: by Shawnodese, c.1970; a precognitive warning dream
I dream my friend Suvy introduces me to a man who just took a class I'm considering.
Weeks later she introduces me to him--but just as in my dream, he feels a bit insipid...
SYLVIA, OR, PUN-DREAMS: by Hervey de Saint-Denys, early 1860s? 4 dreams of French puns
A comet grows hair, a girl named Rosalie becomes a bed of roses, writing in a beautiful
hand appears on a beautiful hand, and Sylvia becomes a talking forest bird...
THE TEACHER: by Lord Vivian, 1874; a predictive dream he bet on... for another!
DREAM: a stranger tells me "The Teacher" won the Handicap. AWAKE: At the track I meet the man in my dream! He
says The Teacher is now called Aldrich. But Aldrich's owner discourages me. A friend trusts my dream & wins £1,000...
TEACHER'S NAME: by Robert Brust; 1977; an apparent predictive dream
I DREAM I'm a kid again, in detention after school. The teacher eyeing me is familiar, but... what's her name?
I WAKE and go to art group. One member says "I visited my retired sister. She talked of you. She taught you!" It's...
THANOS: from Dream to Performance: by Lili Berko, 1988 or before, a dream of birth & death
The ship carrying my mom to America sails on, as I drown in the sea;
They strap me down to pull out the pieces of my stillborn baby Obdale;
A family/gang called Thanotos invites me to join them...
CAUTION: MISCARRIAGE, DEATH
THERAPHOBIA, OR GOOD SENSE?: by Wayan; 1994/5/30, a journal extract
I misname my feelings: depressed for sad, paranoid for wary, phobic for scared. It has consequences...
THOREAU'S MOUNTAIN: by Henry David Thoreau, 1857/10/29, a recurring hypnogogic dream
I dreamt again of that mountain east of Concord where no hill exists. I ascended that long
rocky ridge where wild beasts haunted, into a superterranean grandeur and sublimity...
TIL: by Patricia Garfield, c.1986, a mystical work-advice dream
I'm a spirit flying over the dead, blessing them. They're in mass graves, sorted & grouped
only by their life-stages--kids, adults, elders. Wait... is this how to structure my book?
TINA FEY TRIES TO FLY: by Wayan; 2017/4/24, a mystical feminist farce of a dream
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
TITANIC: by Nina; 1979 or before, an incubated nightmare
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
TRIGO: by Edith L. Willis; 1929/6/4, an induced automatic-writing prediction (profitable, too)
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...
TUCCOTINE: by William Archer; 1917/1/14, a tasteful dream.
The innkeeper insisted I try a strange-looking liqueur, a house specialty called "Tuccotine"...
TURNER'S RECURRING DREAMS: by Jack Turner, 1991-2, a set of genderbent grief dreams
After my mother died, I dreamed I was a girl living after the Apocalypse. I rode my elk
past cars full of corpses, saw friends die, and never could find a single fertile mate...
TWO TANKS: by "Anonymous #19"; pre-1963, a small but precise psychic dream
Two photographic developing tanks disappear. I assumed theft
until I dreamt they were in a room I'd never seen, in locker FJA 39...
ULYANOVSK: by Wayan, 1987/11/4, a predictive & advisory dream
DREAM: I'm a Soviet Potato Fest. Reds, grannies, food. A girl's told a life-and-death lie about a canine...
NEXT DAY: I read a version of Red Riding Hood, and the dream's weird elements suddenly make sense.
CAUTION: SOVIET CLICHÉS, E.S.P. SPECULATION
VONNEGUT: by Alan Vaughan, 1970/3/12; a psychic dreamlet
VAUGHAN'S DREAM: I visit Kurt Vonnegut. Kids all over. He's going on a trip soon. Mentions of 'Jerome' and an island...
VONNEGUT REPLIES: "That night, childrens' author Jerome B visited; we discussed my upcoming trip to England..."
VARTENA: by Wayan; 1986/9/9, a psychic nightmare.
I'm the referee, or 'Vartena', of a violent high-school
game of waterpolo. A friend nearly drowns! Next day...
WATER, HORSE, TWO SUNS: by Dong Feng, 370s CE, a lifesaving dream
A murder case. But the suspect had gone to an interpreter and told of an ominous dream.
The investigator saw its strange images might be puns, naming the real killer--and they did...
WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?: by Carla Young, 2010/3/16; painting of a political dream pun
My friend's ignorant of our local Congressional race. I loathe Pombo
and like his rival McNerney, but can't pronounce his name right...
WHITE LOON: by White Loon, 1870s?, an initiation-negotiation dream
At ten, I fasted a long tedious time. I dreamed a bird offered me showy gifts, but I kept to my grandmother's advice: never take the
first offer. At last a big, strange bird from the north, a white loon, offered me long life and health; that I accepted! So now I'm called...
WHOSE DREAM IS THIS, ANYWAY?: by Anonymous #25, c.2005, as told by Patti Allen; a cledonic dream
A dreamer I know dreamt she was fired by a Mr Bleeden. Baffled her, but made shocking sense to me! My dad...
WINK OF A CAR: by Wayan; 2009/5/20, a surreal dream on workaholism.
DAY: I work way too much--art projects plus helping a friend get her lost data back...
DREAM: A gun nut threatens me, so I claim I bent his gun. Really I just bent spacetime.
He flees atop his toy car, letting it steer--it's smarter than he is. That car winks at me...
WISH AND WAKE: by Wayan; 1998/7/9, a dream within a dream.
I wake up praying for love--and then realize my wish is contradictory, and revise it to...
WITCH'S BUTTER: by Wayan, 2023/5/27, a science-geek dream.
I live in four consecutive bodies: I'm a Bose-Einstein condensate, a cloud of particles moving as one--
unless overheated. No, I'm Witch's Butter, a mob of amoeboid cells who unify into a quasi-slug--temporarily.
No, I'm a person, but soft and yellow as Witch's Butter. No, I'm firming up, but still entangled...


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