World Dream Bank topic: dreams within dreams and false waking

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False Waking or Nested Dreams

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Dreams within dreams, or dreams within dreams within dreams! It can be disorienting to wake up only to find sometime later that you're still in a dreamworld. Such experiences are often called "false waking" or "nested dreaming." The 2001 animated film WAKING LIFE is a fictional example of a deeply nested dream. Below are listed examples from one to more than six layers deep! Dreams within dreams within dreams within dreams within...

Most references I've found to false waking have a joking but frustrated tone: "I woke from the nightmare and shook it off, showered, ate, went to work... and at the end of the day, just as I was free at last, I woke up AGAIN and realized I still had to go to work!"

But in my experience, false waking isn't a mere joke on you--often it's helpful. A lot of my false wakings are like this: I wake, write a dream, figure out what it means, and then wake again to find my notebook blank--that dream interpretation was itself a dream. Yeah, it's extra work to write it twice, but it's when your dreams go to the trouble to interpret themselves, you better take that interpretation seriously!

That's just a special case. Other nested dreams of mine turn out to be precursors to lucid or powerful transcendent dreams, that night or the next night. Ann Faraday noted this pattern 50 years ago in The Dream Game and I've found it true of my dreams. At least watch for the possibility! Your dreams may not be trying to drive you crazy with false-waking. They may be preparing you for something. Like fledgling birds practicing for flight? I'm not sure.

But you can test it! If you have a powerful nested dream (frustrating or not), ASK your dreams about it, the next night, just before sleeping. That night's dream may tell you. If you really were awake when you asked, of course; if you're not dreaming right now.

RELATED TOPICS: lucid dreams - dreams about dreaming and dreamwork - dreams that advise you directly - hypnogogic dreams on the border of waking and sleeping - dream induction, or "incubation" - recurring dreams - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

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	AELFWINE: by Wayan; 1997/12/4, dreams within dreams... about dreams. I go to a lucid-dreaming party, meet the Child who Dreams the World, and find the Body under the Bed...
	ALL THE ANIMALS: by Sharon Lynn Pugh; c.1986, an epic, species-bent, funny, feminist dream-within-a-dream I'm a fox-woman. A human man courts me--insultingly. I dream my brain grows till my head hurts, till it splits open, till light gets in. I rant at the last dragon. Strange but kindly, he gives me a picnic...
	ALONE IN THE DARK IN THE WILD: by Wayan; 1980/7/24, a vision-quest nightmare. A nightmare of a killer who I let torment me because it's better than being alone...
	ANN-THENNATH: by Wayan; 1986/2/1, a fairytale freeway dream. I dream of Beren and Luthien happy and mortal in their forest, and wake to find...
	ARENNA, FREED: by Wayan; 1991/11/6, a magical pastlife/flying/freedom dream. I learn to fly from Arenna the moon-girl and Crest the dragon, in the House of Deep Memory...
	ART OR PROPAGANDA?: by Wayan; dreamed 2008/2/7, 3 dream-reactions to Philip Pullman's books There's a rare dream-type that can change reality itself. I study its EEG trace. Can I learn to do it?... I'm arguing with musicians--what's better, music that serves your goals, or purely great music... I'm bored in class. Draw sexy furries. The babydykes by me do too! Art'll summon the girls we want... CAUTION: PHILOSOPHY! OH NO!
	BACKACHE DIALOGUES: by Wayan; 1993/12/10, four bizarre diagnostic dreamlets. I asked my dreams why my back hurt. They told me: pregnancy, marsupial pouches, snapping turtles...
	BACKWARDS CAUSATION: by Jo; 2008/3/3, a dream where I dream a dream in which I dream No matter who I dream I am, twin secret agents dog me, eating my soup, playing my games... CAUTION: PHILOSOPHY!
	BEAST BIRTHS: by Wayan; 1989/9/19, a predictive dream of family secrets. My family has a hidden gene for incest--and griffins. When I bring the family skeleton from the closet... CAUTION: RAPE, INCEST
	BIRD CRASH: by Emily Joy; 2007/3/12, a set of didactic nightmares Such pressures there are on the sick to act well! I implore you, ignore them all... CAUTION: EXPLODING TEACHER
	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
	BLACK MAGIC: by Wayan; 1986/11/10, a dream of love and rage; Chapter 8 of UNICORN TAG, though it can stand alone. A packet of magic soupmix sends me upstairs to a secret wizards' lab. They've summoned a demon they can't handle: the furious Black Unicorn...
	BLUE BRAINS: by Wayan, 2017/12/11, a false-waking, self-flagging predictive dream Our brains are really squid stuffed in a skulljar. I wake, see the image on TV. "So it's predictive!" I think. Then I wake to find that too was a dream. "Not predictive!" I think. Until my friend turns on the TV, and...
	CHELSEA AND THE PRESIDENTIAL COMPLEX: by Wayan; 1999/12/25, an odd political (?) dream. I was hot tubbing and flirting... so how'd I end up as Chelsea Clinton running for office?
	CHINA AND AMERICA: by Alder and Wayan; 1997/9/23, telepathic dreams. Two giants wrestle in the Chinese mountains. Who'll win, Red or Yellow? But when I wake...
	COUNTERSUE GOD: by Wayan; 1995/8/5, a sacrilegious dream. God flames me for putting pagan stuff on the Net, and we end up suing each other. Then the riots begin... CAUTION: HITMEN AND HERESY
	CHINA AND AMERICA: by Alder and Wayan; 1997/9/23, telepathic dreams. Two giants wrestle in the Chinese mountains. Who'll win, Red or Yellow? But when I wake...
	CROC BOY: by Wayan; 2008/8/17, a dream-poem, Dreamverse #7. I visit a witch-smeller, who judges apprentice shamans. But when a boy dreams he's a crocodile, she freaks out...
	DAD FALLS ASLEEP AT THE PODIUM: by Jenny Badger Sultan; 2008/3/8; painting in the Box of Dreams My father is supposed to speak, but he falls asleep onstage. I rush up to try and rouse him, but...
	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...
	DEER-MAN DANCING: by "Cmmndrblu"; early 2006, a shamanic dream-within-a-dream at least six layers deep! I met a deer-man in the woods. I go lucid, then wake up... to find I'm still dreaming. And wake again, and wake, and wake...
	DEER VERSUS PIGS: by Wayan; 2015/5/20; twin dreams; joking or serious? Deer-mares join our theatre class. Adorable! Then pig people. Not adorable. I wake & sketch them. Hear voices--sexy singing deer on TV! Wow, my dream was predictive! And then I wake AGAIN... CAUTION: FURRY NUDITY
	DINAH'S ADVICE: by Wayan; 2007/4/14, a false-waking advisory frustration dream I struggle to write down a bizarre dream clearly and simply, but both pens and paper have mutated. Then a child prodigy explains “dreams don’t always want to be linear”...
	THE DINOSAUR ELEVATOR: by Wayan; 1992/11/22, a paradoxical dream. The dinosaurs I meet manage to prove BOTH leading time-travel theories! Yet they're incompatible...
	DISASTER DREAM: by Roz Chast, 2023 or before, a dream on the struggle of dreamwork? Trump wackos bomb the World Trade Center. I flee New York. Morticia Addams puts us up. Inside the dream, I fall asleep. When I wake I ask "was the attack a dream?" Morticia says it was smaller. I try to write it all down on my bedsheet, but the ink spreads. I wake again, sure I need to wash the sheet...
	DONE FOR: by the Reverend Francis Kilvert; 1872/10/14, a nightmare within a nightmare I dreamt a friend poisoned me. I "woke" and slew him in fury. But guilt gnawed me. I confessed and was due to hang... CAUTION: NOT A CALM GUY
	DOPPELGANGER: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; 6-page hostage-dream comic; shamanic? Tony works as a courier in Sarajevo till he inadvertently delivers a bomb. Held by a warlord for months, he dreams within the dream, and draws those dreams... CAUTION: GRIM
	DRANK IT ALL: by Julia Wertz, (mid?)2011, a nested nightmare Fighting alcoholism, I dream I drink all the booze in a bar, then wake up shaken... so shaken I reach for the bottles by my bed and drink THEM, then wake up shaken... and clutch my cat, wondering if I'm still dreaming--will I wake up again? CAUTION: ALCOHOLIC NIGHTMARE(S)
	DREAM RECALL: by Wayan; 1998/8/1, two dreams on dreaming. Are dreamworlds grim, on average? Do our dreams just express fears, or try to SOLVE our problems?
	DREAMS EXPLAIN DREAMS: by Wayan; 1994/5/31, a dream in a dream in a dream. I'm the composer Schumann, till a nightmare jumps me and I wake. And wake. And wake... CAUTION: MALE NUDITY
	DRUGGED, SHRUNK AND DAUBED: by Wayan; 2008/11/1, a dream-poem (Dreamverse #38) I'm worried an alien charity is brainwashing an ex-prostitute. When I wake, she's still there--at 2/5 scale!...
	EDDY DROPPED: by Frances's sister; pre-1961, a laughed-at warning dream My brother-in-law Eddy was out hunting with a boy whose shotgun had its safety off. Suddenly Eddy... CAUTION: VIOLENT, PREVENTABLE DEATH
	THE EFFECTS OF PSYCHIC INVASION: by Wayan; 1999/4/17, a dream about ESP What are the psychological effects of growing up psychic, as others' thoughts and feelings invade you? When other's bodies invade you, it's molestation...
	THE ELEVEN CENT ORACLE: by Wayan; 1998/11/12, a dream on accumulating... change. I'm a migratory girl who's lost my tribe. I find eleven coins, cross the world, and pay the Oracle...
	THE ENTWINED CHILD AND MADAM PURR-SAY: by PurplePurplePurple; 2013/7/5, twin poem-dreams I dream my autistic son, miraculously high-functioning, recites a math-poem to a crowd... Then I become cartoon cat Madam Purr-Say and chant my own defiant poem at the dream gods... CAUTION: FIRST POEM AUTISTIC, SECOND PISSY
	EYES IN THE BLACK SQUARE: by Mark Varitz and Wayan; dreamed 1985/1/14, telepathic or shared dreams WAYAN: I wake deep in the night. From the black square of a curtainless window, eyes are peering in at me... MARK: I wake to find a black square trapdoor in my bedroom ceiling. From the dark above, eyes peer in at me...
	FALCON AND FÜHRER: by Miriel; 1985/7/31, an epic flying/transformation dream A mysterious "Führer" hypnotized all my companions. So I become a human-sized falcon and hunt him...
	FAMILIARS: by Wayan; 1986/4/2, a dreamtale on the dark side of reading. In ancient Britain, as Christianity moves in, I'm a slave--sailing through centuries, but never free...
	FERRYGOAT: by Wayan; 2009/8/15, a dream warning what I was becoming; Dreamverse #48 That levitating bear's not tightrope-walking--she rides a goat strung like soap-on-a-rope. A goat that's me! I'm eating... CAUTION: UGH!
	FETAL PAUSE: by Wayan; 2008/8/31, a nightmare-poem, Dreamverse #17 As I write a sad sex dream, a madman curls up fetally in the road outside my window. I'm slow to call 9-1-1, and...
	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 8½, 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!
	FIRST LADY: by Alder; 2008/7/2, a possibly psychic dream-within-a-dream. I'm the First Lady. I have a dream that my husband's assassinated, and wake and try to warn him...
	FIVE ELVISH DREAMS: by Dolores J. Nurss; 2005/6/10-2005/6/19, an incubated lucid-dream sequence 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...
	FLYING UNICORNS' GIFTS: by Lily Michaud; 2007/9/5, an advice-dream inside a flying dream Flying unicorns hang out with me and my friends, sending us dreams full of useful advice--and more concrete gifts...
	FOAM, FURS, DREAMS: by Wayan; 2012-16, a blog on sewing giant dream plushies; 43 dreams! My dreams urge me to build furry dream creatures with joints, muscles & bones, then to heal myself by mating with them... CAUTION: FETISHISM, FURRY NUDITY & SEX
	FOUR DRAGONS: by 'Rasselon'; 2009/11/24, a dream of aerial duels By a lake I've seen in many dreams, four dragons attack. I become one too, and duel them in mid-air...
	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
	THE GHOST IN MIRIEL'S BUG: by Miriel & Wayan; 1985/10/1, an apparently shared dream WAYAN: I dream a transparent ghost steals my sister Miriel's white VW bug... MIRIEL: I dream about a ghost and my old white VW bug that was stolen... CAUTION: E.S.P. CLAIM
	GO YOUR OWN WAY: by Peter Birkhäuser; 1942-45?, three advisory dreams plus a realist painting, '44. Peter draws painstaking realism til his tense hand turns into a horn! An anima urges him to walk into a blue light. He & Sybelle struggle against a crowd walking the wrong way...
	GRIEF KIVA: by Wayan; 1980/2/16, a lucid psychic dream. In a Hopi underworld, I find even lucid dreaming can't cure guilt and grief over losses yet to come...
	THE GRIFFINS' LESSON: by Wayan, 2018/6/1, a pair of predictive dreamlets I live through two teens' nightmares, then "wake" with them to find they were drugged by a third party! Why? Then I'm with a cheery wagon-crew of flirting griffins & talking horses, pulling a cart made of grammar or logic. Six days later... detailed images from both dreams appear on TV! CAUTION: CREEPY, THEN SAPPY, THEN FREAKY
	GUDEA'S TEMPLE: by Gudea of Lagash; c.2125 BCE: one of the first false-waking or nested dreams A winged god whose body's a wave urged me to do... what? I couldn't understand him! I woke... A scribe with a shining stylus listed stars; an architect gave me plans and a brick-mold. I woke again! My dream had clarified itself. So I built the temple shown me, aligned with those stars...
	HALF-COCKED: by Larry Vigon; 2004/1/4; an alarming dream I'm in the army, in line for a prostitute. An earlier dream cut my cock in two. It heals, but my stodgy technique bores my assigned girl; and the cops break the legs of girls who try to leave. A riot begins--can I even escape? CAUTION: STARTS SORDID, ENDS BRUTAL
	THE HAND THAT WAKES: by Wayan; 1997; acrylic study of what makes us forget dreams. I was painting to a sad scary song by Laurie Anderson that goes "This is the hand... the hand that takes..."
	HELL-TORNADO: by Wayan; 1988/7/2, a dream on social engineering. Who built the tornado in the Heartland, that sucks anyone who opens their spirit-wings down to Hell? CAUTION: BAD THEOLOGY, WORSE PHYSICS
	HIPPIE MISSILES: by Wayan, 1990/7/23, twin dreams of risky leaps leading to flight 1: I try to grow feathers and fly, but half-fail, half-succeed--experience two bodies at once... 2: I fly to escape a hippie cult. They fire heat-seeking missiles! But I may be too cool to track...
	I FIGHT FOR BEAUTY: by Wayan; 1990/1/1, an incubated dream within a dream within a dream. From Hawaii to Wyoming, I fight for beauty, always waking to find I'm someone new...
	I OVERSLEPT: by Wayan; 1992/6/12, a dream of loss. I oversleep. A lot. All my friends are dead, along with my century...
	"I WANT YOUR DREAMS": by Mark Varitz; 1995/11/17; a shamanic nightmare; predictive? At an amusement park, big 3D letters appeared in the air, saying "I WANT YOUR DREAMS". Terrified, I dived underground...
	ILLUSION: by Georges Perec; December 1968, a prose-poem of a nested false-waking dream. Dream #4 I am dreaming. She's beside me. I tell myself I'm dreaming. I wake. She really is beside me. Delirious joy. I embrace her. I wake...
	IN THE BIG BOOKSHOP: by Wayan; 2020/6/28, a dream asserting another dream was prophetic! I'm in a construction zone behind the world's largest bookshop, telling a friend that late 2020 & January 2021 will be a mess. I hide that I know it because a unicorn in a dream said so...
	IN THE ENEMY MINE: by Wayan; 1986/1/11, a psychic dream. On Mars, a child-sacrificing cult of miners wants to kill me, but something strange happens....
	IN THE SHADOW OF MAN: by Wayan; 1994/3/4, a dream on how to escape the cage I'm a lab animal who discovers voice software and creates a personal zine, testifying for our rights...
	JACKIE: by Lindsay Vanhove, early 2000s? Premonitions and a dream prompting a bird-rescue I dreamed a big black bird shared our house, and whenever I walked a certain street, I had flashes of raising a corvid. On day, on that street, I saved a jackdaw hit by a car. Her broken wing has healed; now she flies in and out of our house as she pleases...
	KESCIA'S NESTED DREAMS: by Kescia, 2001 or before, two false-waking sex dreams I'm alone in bed, but begin to see sensual bodies around me. I start to masturbate, climax, and wake. I feel loose and light-- so light I float above my bed! A beautiful woman's next to me. We caress mid-air. I come intensely, and wake again, alone... CAUTION: SEX
	THE KEY IS HERE, BUT BEWARE; 2012/3/8 by Eleanor; nested nightmares of enlightenment The moment I find the Key, I'm possessed! I wake to find it's just a nightmare. Only who's broken into my house?... CAUTION: DEMONIC POSSESSION & EVERYDAY PSYCHOPATHS
	KISSINGER+DENTISTRY=WHY: by Roz Chast, 2023 or before, a dream within a dream I dream I go to my NY dentist, but the novocaine sends me into a dream of having dentistry in Tel Aviv! I 'wake' and my NY dentist explains he can't do me today: sore hands from doing Henry Kissinger...
	LIES!: by Wayan; 1992/7/10, a dream that thinks it's a two-page novel. To investigate a criminal couple, I have to lie. And that's hard, since all my lies turn true... CAUTION: NEW AGE AND FILM NOIR DON'T MIX
	A LIFE IN PERCENTAGES: by Wayan; 2013/5/19, a dream about dreams--and timesharing A man I meet leads half a dozen consistent dreamlives--an experience so splintered that it's hard to figure out which life is his waking one...
	LITTLE BAD DREAM CHARM: by Kathy Fagan; 2001? A slip-filled dream-poem Half asleep, I scrawl a nightmare of trying to rescue gasping boyfish, but my dreamwriting goes wrong too...
	LOVE OF MY LIVES: by James Lyon; 2014/5/25, a life-spanning dream. I live two complete lives with the same woman in my dreams, then wake up next to her...
	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...
	MARABOU MONSTER: by Rustling Leaves; dreamed 2014/3/15 I've got too many obligations, an elderly relative to care for, and now giant birds are invading my house. CAUTION: STALKING, KILLER BIRDS
	MATURITY: by Wayan; 1989/1/26, a dream on bluntness. Beverly Cleary's Ramona is a popular teen, but she's having a nervous breakdown. And her best friend... CAUTION: STUDENT-TEACHER AFFAIR
	MAYAN DOOR: by Wayan; 2008/3/21, a character-evaluation dream. The Mayan cave was a door between worlds. But also a model of the character you need to walk through that door...
	THE MER BUILDING: by Wayan; 2001/2/23, a dream of a double life. I’m a puma with a night job as a cellist. But my day job with The Architectives is the bizarre one...
	MINE BACK DOOR: by Wayan; 1979/9/7, a dream on mining the unconscious. Deep in a secret diamond mine, I see stars. A door opening to the night sky! But this shortcut's heavily guarded...
	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.
	NIP OFF HIS NOSE: by Wayan, 2020/2/20, four surreal dreamlets about Covid? or... overwork? 1: I sketch two deer-girls making videos. 2: I pull a man's nose off, and milk the scene for drama before... 3: My old boss is convicted of murder! 4: I wake and two friends interpret #3 as "Overwork is killing you..." I wake again. My dream-notebook's blank. No friends here; their interpretation was a dream too.... CAUTION: NUDE DEER
	NO “I": by Wayan; 2003/10/22, a dream of identity loss. I’m in San Francisco trying to throw Sauron’s Ring into the Cracks of San Andreas. But a sexy sorcerer steals my sense of I! How can you act without a self?
	NOCTURNE: dreamed 2011 & 2013/11/19 by S---; nested, incubated advisory dreams After asking "Am I ready to say yes to someone new?" I dreamed I met my old love...
	OUT OF BODY TO THE MOON: by Hervey de Saint-Denys, 1860?-67? Early out-of-body dream I rise out of my body, find I'm invulnerable, visit the moon, with its volcanic rocks, re-enter my body, "wake" and write the dream--only to wake again and find all my notes gone!...
	PAD ON THE FLOOR: by Cory and Wayan; 2020/9/13, parallel, apparently telepathic dreams. CORY: I'm in a government complex. Tired, but guards harass me. At last they let me nap on a floor pad. WAYAN: I'm in the Student Union. Need to study, but guards harass me. Yet they let my friend sleep on a... CAUTION: APPARENT E.S.P.
	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
	POTLATCH SMOKE: by Wayan; 1988/5/10, a shamanic dream-inside-dream 4 levels deep! Refugees flood the spirit worlds! War looms. Wolf, Silky, Dr Who, even the Bug-Goddess of Love are alarmed. I'm just a blonde ditz, but I help inspect realities till we trace the source: a Tlingit potlatch! Why?
	PREGNANCY FROM HELL: by Wayan; 1994/6/6, a predictive dream-farce. I'm pregnant with the Antichrist. This is going to ruin my vacation! Why do I think this is all about money?
	PRRL: by Wayan; 1997/1/17, an intergalactic dream. I'm an ambassador from the Milky Way to the energy-beings who rule the Magellanic Clouds. Or am really just their pet?
	A PSYCHIC READING: by Wayan; 1981/10/13, a self-labeling dream My friend Beryl's unconvinced that my dream of her death was a warning. Okay, it WAS hazy. But they get clearer...
	QUOD VITAE: by Rene Descartes; 1619/11/11, three mystical dreams. In one night Descartes had three dreams convincing him he had to change the course of his life...
	THE RECURRING DREAM (CAT-BABY): by Julie Doucet; 1994/8/23-9/23-12/23, 1995/4/16: theme & variation! Julie keeps dreaming that she gives birth to a cat, or a part-cat baby... CAUTION: NUDITY, BIRTH, UNBIRTH, REBIRTH...
	RETARDED STARS, by Wayan, 2009/2/28; a dream-poem, Dreamverse #42 A horde of demented dwarves invades Market Street, jumping up & down, shaking the skyscrapers...
	REVOLUTION IS MESSY: by Emily Joy; 2006/4/26, a political dream When whites invade, two shapeshifting Native American cubs resist architecturally...
	ROBOT AND UNICORN: by Wayan, 2022/11/23, a dream of building a rebellion After too much TV, I dream I'm plotting against a regime of suave, treacherous magical beings. But a unicorn sorceress suggests I enlist the robots. She's right--they find plutocratic thaumocracy ugly... CAUTION: ANTI-CAPITALIST
	SILKY'S REVOLUTION: by Wayan; 1995/9/4, a historical dream. I'm in an alternate-history American Revolution with Silky the talking black mare. We sail for Europe as diplomats...
	SISTERS' PSYCHODRAMA: by Christine Downing; before 1986, recurring dream of a Hadean abduction In psychodrama, my sister/lover did a happy childhood scene--till the actors took her down a trap door into the underworld. And I knew I'd have to go down after her...
	SNOW by Nancy Price; 1948, a false-waking dream about living vs survival Lost in the snow, I must give my baby to a stranger or let my dad put him in a box, safe, forever...
	SPLINTER: by Wayan; 1981/3/14, a dream of love and nagging. I love Splinter, but her mom insists I got BOTH of them pregnant. Then I notice I'm pregnant too... CAUTION: SEX, NAGGING
	STARHAWK THE WITCH: by Wayan; 1983/8/19, 6. illus., an epic, milestone dream. DAY: I read Starhawk's Dreaming the Dark, on building unity, undoing capitalism; DREAM: I'm forced to become Time Pilgrim, warning of the dangers of community--indeed, of unity...
	STOP ME!: by Wayan; 1994/2/22, a nested nightmare on guilt for simply feeling I kill with an angry wish, just pointing my finger! No one sees, but I secretly pray others will stop me before I snipe again. Yet when I meet a telepath who can see my guilt, I start to wonder just what my crime was--beside guilt itself... CAUTION: VIOLENCE, GUILT
	STREAMLINING: by Wayan; 2004/11/10, a dream within a dream I dream I'm an otter, and wake into a dream about sculpture--and learn my style's due to my species...
	SURRENDER DARCY!: by Wayan; 1982/6/14, a dreamtale on pride and prejudice. I'm Doctor Who, being chased by an air-surfer who demands we give up a reserved, proud man named... CAUTION: MILD NUDITY
	SWORD IN MY BACK: by Franz Kafka; 1915/1/19, a surreal but un-Kafkaesque dream. I slept late and felt a bit stiff, but until my friends pulled it out of my neck I had no idea...
	TAHOE DRAGON: by Wayan; 1980/8/16, a dream of flight and fire A dragon killed a friend, and threatened worse. I had to fight. We dueled mid-air, over Lake Tahoe...
	THEY DON'T BELIEVE ME: by Wayan; 1989/10/4, an unbelievable dream with 15 illus. My dog and I are abducted by aliens who turn us into cats. We escape & go feral to survive. How we got back, and what happened along the way, even my own shrink refuses to believe... CAUTION: LEWD SQUID AND KLEPTOMANIAC BUGS
	THIS CAN'T BE REM!: by Wayan; 1981/8/18, a predictive stinky dream. An article claimed smell is rare to absent in dreams. My dreams felt insulted and sent me a stinky one! But why THAT stink? Well... next morning on my way to work...
	TIE MARK UP: by Wayan, 2019/2/1, three dreams warning lifelong habits demand serious change 1: Crystal-skulled wizards, dino & lionfolk parade by. 2: I curl up with three skittish beasts. Patience! 3: My friend Mark tries to rape me. I tie him up, seek a restraining order. Will the cops believe me? CAUTION: RAPE ATTEMPT
	TRISKELION: by Kristopher Saknussemm, c.1986, a surreal false-waking dream Only up close do I see that the map of these mysterious continents is made of moths. I wake in Polynesia. By the bed, in a jar, floats one of my hands. For no reason, I begin to cry...
	TRISKELION; 2011/6/21 by Wayan; a repeated false-waking dream of dating advice I wake up in a weird sexual situation. But I'm still dreaming--I wake again to find I'm in an even weirder sexual situation. But I'm still... CAUTION: NUDITY, SEX, (ANTI?)ROMANTICISM
	VOR: by Wayan; 1984/3/27, an indescribable dream Am I King Kong? No, it's a city of midgets! I leave and find I'm gay. Gay bugs come out of the closet too, storming the fundamentalist flies of Heaven. And then Vor, the purple alien, does something peculiar... CAUTION: LOOKS DOWN ON HOMOPHOBIC MIDGETS
	VRILLASSA’S ONLY PRIEST: by Jo; 2007/2/10, a dream of meeting God A job as the only priest on an island colony sounded perfect, only I’m the wrong religion... CAUTION: DOGMATISTS AND DEAD BIRDS TALKING
	WHAT E.S.P. IS FOR: by Wayan; 2012/12/10, three dreamlets on my real nature and purpose I dream ESP isn't just for oneself. A romance between a wolf singer & a deer guitarist. I'm furry too, and better accept it!
	WHAT STARTED THE PILLOWFIGHT: by Wayan; 1983/2/16, a strangely innocent dream. My sister and I get into an argument about different kinds of incest, in embarrassing circumstances... CAUTION: POST-ORGY HYPOCRISY
	WHO IS OUTSIDE MY WINDOW?: by Krista G.; 2008/6/25, a recurrent false-waking dream. Someone's prowling outside my window. I'm paralyzed in bed, but I force myself into action...
	WHOSE DREAM WAS IT?: by Wayan; 2008/10/18, a nested-dream poem, Dreamverse #35. I'm a Chinese kid fleeing the Japanese Occupation in 1938. As we near San Francisco, I wake to find it's all my dad's dream. Wait--he's alive again? But he was never a refugee. Is it a pastlife memory? If so, whose--his or mine?
	WHY ME?: by Karen Smith; 1991/7/22; nested flying/oracular/tragic dreams I flew joyfully over Sun Valley. But when I landed, I wore a uniform. As I slept in our barracks, I dreamed--within my dream--of finding two friends in the lake, tangled in a net, long dead. I "woke" and told a friend my dream. She said in tears "I know someone has to die, but why me?
	WILD W.I.L.D.: by Dream Junkee; 2008/1/19, an epic lucid frustration dream? I'm lucid but paralyzed. A weird child spies on me; is she controlling me? Then I'm having sex--but if I come, I'll wake up! Then some thugs jump me. I make sure they won't bother me again, but... is everyone in this dream out to distract me? CAUTION: SEX, MUGGER-STOMPING
	WIND OF SELF-HATE: by Wayan, 1976/4/4, a dream warning of family brainwashing Biking around blindfolded and half-naked, I fight winds of self-criticism and self-hatred that only I can feel...
	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...
	THE WIZARD'S HORSE: by Wayan; 2018/9/3, a magical dream about... toxic waste? I'm a wizard's horse, trying to warn him about a toxic spell on a roadside corpse... Wake into a second dream, but try to return to being a dream-mare and warn my rider... And then wake to realize my Nightmare was warning about a home-renovation project!