Out of Control!
They're not all grim--try The Black Egg, The Dog Pilot Program, Inertial Damper, Little Nemo's Bed, The Magic of Writing, Perissa, Rattler Banquet, Trout Beck, Trust your Canoe, or What you Imagine Happens
RELATED TOPICS: crashes - falling - natural disasters - Jungian Shadows - nightmares - surrender & letting go -- See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 4000 dreams plus 1000 pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2022.
THE ADDICTION: by Wayan; 1988/1/26, a thoughtful nightmare I'm addicted to faraway trains. I quit cold turkey, but I shake the house down! Junkie poltergeists... CAUTION: DRUG ADDICTION. SORT OF. |
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AIRPLANE DISASTERS: by Jack Kerouac, early Aug? 1954, a helpless-witness nightmare An indestructible camera relentlessly shows me what passengers feel on every crashing plane... CAUTION: PAINFUL READING |
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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... |
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ALTHEA'S CHICKEN: by Wayan; 1990/3/27, a nightmare-farce. My sister Althea decides my house has demons, and hires an exorcist who botches things, so that... |
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ANNE GOT LOST: by Anne's friend; 1936, a warning dream wisely acted on She was headed for a rock wall. The brakes faded; she smelled burning. Then she woke. Her friends laughed, but she asked a neighbor what to do if... |
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ASTEROID STRIKES: by Ben Bamber; Sept.-Dec. 2001, 4 dreams predicting 3 meteor strikes I witnessed strikes in Brighton and Devon through the eyes of others; but I felt the Cheltenham impact in my own body... |
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AT A BIG 'SWENSON' PARTY: by Jack Kerouac, mid-Sept? 1953, a nightmare on need A lovely pecan pie, but the guests are cutting pieces, dropping them, hands trembling in growing hunger desperate the dark voracious guests fighting now to freeload... CAUTION: NOT ABOUT PIE |
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AT A CALIFORNIA CAMP: by Jack Kerouac, spring 1955, a nuclear testing nightmare My family and I are prisoners in a camp that will be H-bombed so our remains can be studied. I write a Buddhist poem preparing for death... CAUTION: GOVERNMENT ATROCITY |
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AYRES: by Wayan; alarming nondream discovery 2006/5/4, and subsequent revelations The therapist my parents made me see as a kid got convicted of molesting his child clients. But not all. I played an evasive waiting game for three awful years under his leering scrutiny. So, can evading a molester still traumatize? Oh yes... CAUTION: CHILD NEGLECT & ABUSE |
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BAGGING PETER BEAGLE: by Wayan, 2017/7/7, a predictive little nightmare of manslaughter-guilt Drunk, I fight writer Peter Beagle. He falls. Out cold. I wake sure I'm a killer... Next day I read Ellen Klages's Passing Strange. Its climactic scene is curiously familiar... |
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BAYSHORE AND CHARTER: by a Redwood City man; July 1951, a lifesaving predictive urge I burst into tears for no reason and for 15 minutes begged my brother-in-law not to go, then said... CAUTION: GRUESOME |
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LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI: by John Keats, April 1819, a sexy nightmare poem A knight falls in love with a fey woman, until her previous victims warn him in a nightmare that she is... CAUTION: GOTH TO THE MAX |
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THE BIG CRUNCH: by Wayan; 1979/5/9, a cosmic nightmare. I'm a girl being stalked. I get drastic--scrunch up the universe & shake it out! And is THAT enough? CAUTION: ANXIETY, GUILT, POSSIBLE APOCALYPSE |
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BIG FLAMING AIRPLANES TRYING TO LAND: by Jack Kerouac, late Oct. 1953, a double nightmare Two DC-6s catch burn over New York. Me? I'm a naked child in a Babylonian temple in Jersey... |
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BILLIE: by Billie's Mom; 1945/1/20, a psychic warning dream My son Billie, his Navy uniform soaking wet, cried "Oh, Mom--it's so terrible!" and shrank into a baby again as I held him... CAUTION: EXPLOSION |
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THE BLACK EGG: by Wayan; 1999/3/25, a comic psychic dream. My crazy friend Wayne goes bowling for busses with a black egg. Wait! Crazy? Or... predictive? CAUTION: GEORGIA O'KEEFFE BEHAVES DISGRACEFULLY |
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BLACK WINTER: by Jeff Knabel; 1997, a dream-song from a possibly predictive nightmare I dreamed a large meteor had struck the Earth. I found my Dad just as the shockwave hit... CAUTION: APOCALYPSE |
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BODY-SWITCH: by Wayan; 2000/6/10; a dream of a castaway soul Spies kidnap a girl and move her soul into a madwoman's body. Can she survive? Recover? Thrive? The TV dance show helps... |
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BROKE LIKE GLASS: by Katherine Mansfield; 1919/12/15, a warning-dream. A long terrible shiver, and my whole body broke like glass. I may live months, but in that dream I died... |
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BURN: by Sierra Loucks; 1990?, a five-year-old's nightmare I was at the beach with my friends. It was fun. But gradually they were laughing at me, not with me. Then they picked up burning sticks... CAUTION: GRUESOME |
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BUT AS YESTERDAY by Nancy Price; 1948, a dream of being sacrificed Our gods demand sacrifices. I let Mother mutilate me so I'd be unfit. But the priests turn out to be blind... CAUTION: YOU CAN FEEL PAIN IN DREAMS |
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BUTLER'S CROSSING: by David's father; 1941/8/24, a (heeded or unheeded?) warning dream He saw a vehicle coming toward him at great speed. The light was so bright it blinded him. He screamed... |
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THE CHIANG-SHIH: by Julian Garberson; 2004/8/23, a surreal Han Dynasty nightmare A vampire wrestler on the Throne of Heaven pins me. Visualization and prayer don't free me--in fact, they get me killed... |
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CHRONOPHOBIA!: by Wayan; 1993/7/10, a physicist's nightmare on time's arrow I find myself driving a speeding car down a freeway--in reverse. No, not reverse gear... |
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CROCODILE DREAM: by Patagia; 2015/10/5, a nightmare-poem on recklessness Closer I edge to admire their scales, the glint of their teeth, and shape of their tails. They cast a strong spell... |
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CRYSTAL AND GUNSEL: by Wayan; 1997/7/2, a nightmare--psychic or not? Gunsel kills my friend Crystal in a flaming aircar crash. But that's not enough--he comes back, and... CAUTION: VIOLENCE |
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CUBIST CHARLIE BROWN: by Wayan; 1977/4/1, a cubist nightmare. We're Cubist cartoon characters, trapped in a strip gone mad. But my dad stays calm! Too calm... CAUTION: SEAS OF BLOOD... OR IS IT RED INK? |
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DAD SMASHES COPCAR: by Wayan, 1977/5/26, a warning dream physically enforced the next day My dad drives recklessly, hits a copcar hard, smashing our front end. I wake knowing it says "Kay's a batterer. Leave her or I'LL be smashed." That day... CAUTION: NIGHTMARE, BATTERING ISSUES |
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THE DESTRUCTION OF HAWAI'I; 2004/9/2 by Anonymous #37; a short apocalyptic nightmare I was a small boy living on Oahu. Out my front door I saw a 20-mile-tall wall of flames stretching across the horizon... |
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DESTRUCTION OF THE NIGHTMARE TOWERS: by Dustin Shuler; c.1955-1965, recurrent nightmare made performance art As a kid, when I had a fever I always had the same nightmare: a high brick or stone wall shaking apart, faster and faster. This scared me very much. Finally, in my teens, I... |
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DIAGNOSTIC BATTERY: by Wayan; 1988/4/20, a nightmare of backstabbing that came true My sister & her new guru tests me psychologically--only it looks like a test to destruction... CAUTION: EMOTIONAL CRUELTY |
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THE DOG PILOT PROGRAM: by Wayan; 1981/4/23, a dream of doing the impossible. I get a job in China teaching bus-driving dogs how to fly. I don't know how. Luckily, the dogs... |
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DON'T GET UPSET: by Wayan; 1996/4/10; a warning-nightmare comic (small screen, slow loading? Illus. text) A mob chases me chanting "Lyin' Wayan!" I get dizzy, fall off a bridge, and wake. Then comes REAL trouble! CAUTION: FATAL FALL |
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THE DOOMED TRAIN: by Anna Kingsford; Nov. 1876, a galvanizing political nightmare We were on a train headed for a crash. No one was in the engine. Rather than jump, my friend insisted we try... |
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DREAM OR REALITY?: by Ben Torter, 1994?, a (subliminal? psychic?) lifesaving nightmare I'm in a small pond. A monster goldfish stalks me. I seem trapped in place, and wake in panic, sheets drenched--to find my pet goldfish gasping on the floor... |
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THE DREAMSUIT: by Wayan; 1992/7/12, a dream on unconscious programming. An experimental helmet knocks me out. I'm groggy, miserable, till I learn what it did to others... |
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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 |
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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... |
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ENGINE GENIUS: by Wayan; 2005/2/4, a health-warning dream. At my mechanic's garage, a child prodigy rebuilds a car engine. Gawking, I nearly plow into the crowd... |
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ESCAPE FROM PBS!: by Wayan; 1992/9/17, a trapped-in-TV nightmare. I'm trapped in a TV documentary on nuclear war! Better dive through a TV screen and find a safe sitcom... |
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EVERLASTING AND PERPETUAL NIGHTMARE: by Shawn King; c. 2009/2/10; two bits of a lifelong nightmare Lucifer throws firebolts from a Montreal tower; monsters stalk us; next comes the flood... |
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FAVORS: by Wayan; 1992/7/1, a futile predictive dream. A dream-friend blames me for nothing. I wake, and TWO friends blame me for... |
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FEVER HILL: by Wayan; 1991/4/13, a comic Buddhist nightmare. My fever-dreams manifest physically and mess up my whole neighborhood. Seismic inspectors arrive... |
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THE FLYING POGO STICK: by Leah, c.1986, as told to Patricia Garfield, a comic nightmare Leah, pregnant, finds herself at the beach, flying on a pogo stick, just as all the seabirds do. Fun at first, but it gets out of control... |
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FOOT ON THE GAS: by Wayan; 1982/3/16, a creepy little warning dream. My car's idling too fast. After hours of diagnosis, I notice a foot's on the gas! But not my foot... |
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FULL MOON KIDNAP: by Wayan; 2018/4/30, a dream warning that recurrent illness shapes the psyche Every full moon, kidnappers jump me. Sometimes I escape, but when they succeed, they torture me till the moon wanes. They're careful to leave no physical scars... |
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GARDEN OF SWORDS: by Louis MacNeice; 1937, a dream foreseeing World War II. I'm at a garden-party when They attack. I flee through a garden of swords, but a guard with a bayonet... |
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GIANT'S HANDS: by Wayan; dreamed 1981/12/23, a split-consciousness nightmare I was a giant carefully & guiltlessly flattening San Francisco--just following orders to recycle it! Killing how many? While my mind inside the giant's mind was appalled... |
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GODEVILLE: by Wayan; 2013/9/1, a nightmare of that Old-Time Religion
I'm at a vaudeville for gods. Cthulhu the squid-god nearly tramples me--and then gets horny... CAUTION: GROSS GOD, GROSS GOO |
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A HAUNTED HOUSE INDEED!: by Anna Kingsford; 1887/4/12, an epic ghost dream I was warned about soul-devouring art in the haunted house, but I didn't expect to find an entire art salon... CAUTION: ABSORBING ARTWORK |
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HELPLESSLY LUCID: by Alder; 2007/6/23, a lucid dream in which I'm powerless! I'm a homeless elf. We're a persecuted minority group. I know I'm dreaming and try to change it but... |
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HOUSE OF BLUE LIGHT: by Wayan; 1994/4/3, a dark dream. As my grandmother is dying, I have a dream about what really went on in her house... CAUTION: CHILD SLAVERY |
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HUMMINGBIRD HANDS: by Ranjit Bhatnagar, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a freed-by-music dream A mind-control drug urges her to strangle her loved ones, but to beat the curse she busies her fluttering hands with bluegrass banjo... |
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HYPNOGOGIC ASSAULT: by Dr Simon Forman; 1559-63, recurring hypnogogic images. From age six on, Simon nightly climbs mountains and faces roaring floods in a sort of naptime bootcamp... |
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I CAN'T JOIN THE TRIBE: by Wayan; 1997/8/12, a nightmare on madness. After the eco-crash, I try to join a tribe in the jungle that was Oakland. But they reject me, for good reason... |
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I, MEATBALL: by Vladimir Cole, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a warning nightmare? I'm chased by spaghetti, snared, sprinkled with parmesan. My hungry classmates loom, and my best friend says... |
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ID FLOWERS: by Wayan; 1989/10/8, a dream of wish and fear The villagers warned me not to walk in the alien graveyard; for at night, the Id flowers wake... |
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IGNORABLE DRAGON: by Wayan; 2019/4/13; a dream of brain-unwashing Out my window, a dog is fighting a snake. A dog with bat wings. A dog big as a horse. A griffin! Big as a bus now. A dragon! What spell made me mistake THAT for a dog?... |
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INERTIAL DAMPER: by Wayan; 2017/8/26; a dream warning for another. I'm trapped in a mad scientist's car that squeezes through wall-cracks. But when she aims at a wall with NO cracks, I have to pull out the smuggled alien device in my pocket. Just before impact I switch on the Inertial Damper... |
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THE ISLAND FURIES: by Wayan; summer 1975, a dream of self-control. When warring Greek isles kill a peacemaker, her three best friends start a vendetta! But she wanted peace... CAUTION: HATE NURSED TOO LONG |
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IT'S TOO LATE!: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; a surreal apocalyptic dream I'm in World War II, asking a reporter to keep quiet about our secret weapon. But it's already gone off, melting and distorting the whole cartoon world. It's... |
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JACK IN THE DITCH: by Jack's mom; 1944/6/6, 6/7 & 6/8, three apparently telepathic dreams Jack was a parachutist on D-Day. His mom dreamt of the strafings, the ditch he hid in, the deaths of his comrades... |
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JASON: by MariNaomi; 1989, a romantic-warning nightmare The Mummy chases me, then unwraps his bandages to show the mutilated face of my boyfriend. "I'm getting out of jail!" he says. Then the phone wakes me. My boyfriend. He says "I'm getting out of..." CAUTION: CODEPENDENCE, MUTILATION, GUILT AND GRIEF |
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J.F., T.B. AND ME: by Dream Junkee; 2008/1/24, a lucid nightmare-comedy Lucid, I summon a sexy literary character. But he tries to take over my personality and make it his lucid dream... CAUTION: VAMPIRE-SLAYING |
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JIM'S POWDER: by Helen; pre-1961, a telepathic warning dream I dreamt I was begging Jim not to kill himself, but when I woke, I couldn't bring myself to call. I hardly knew him... CAUTION: GUILT OVER (PREVENTABLE?) DEATH |
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"JUST A FEW MORE YEARS!": by Wayan; 2008/1/2, a nightmare on the coming crash I found myself defending humanity before an astral jury, begging them to delay the great die-back... |
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JUST BEFORE 9/11: by Patti Viscardi; 6 AM 2001/9/11, a predictive nightmare I was on a plane... It was almost graceful, the plane actually entered the building before everything dissolved into flame... CAUTION: DEATH. DEATH TWICE. |
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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 |
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KITTY WANTS TO DIE: by Wayan; 1981/11/9, a nightmare baring a side of me ready to DIE to avoid stuff Kitty, exhausted, stops fighting what's inside her, and lets herself die. Crystalline alien worms burst out, growing till they loom over the spaceport... CAUTION: ADDICTION ROOTED IN AVOIDANCE |
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A KNIFE AT HIS THROAT: by Wayan; 1991/1/1; a political dream-cartoon-fable A courtroom hostage-drama where I'm forced to commit... tracheotomy! And then the Gulf War begins... CAUTION: CARTOON VIOLENCE |
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A KRELKIN SMEARED: by Wayan; 1996/9/23; a dream of bold intervention . I'm a slender, clever krelkin. I draw me, but then red rage erupts and I trash myself... can I be saved? |
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LACED WITH TERROR: by Wayan; 1999/5/3, an anti-nightmare. Researchers show me weird little objects like shoelaces that drive people mad with fear... |
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LASERBOMB: by Wayan, 1995/7/3, a dream on paralysis. I'm on Mars. The terraforming is going well. Then saboteurs set off a laserbomb in the street near me... CAUTION: TERRORISM |
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LBJ OR WOODROW?: by Lyndon Baines Johnson; July-Sept 1955 and Feb-Mar 1968, recurring paralysis dreams From the neck up I was me; from the neck down, Woodrow Wilson in his old age, paralyzed. My presidential aides divided up my duties, and ignored me... |
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LBJ'S STAMPEDE: by Lyndon Baines Johnson; 1913-14?, a childhood nightmare anticipating a presidency As a boy I dreamt I was trapped in a wooden chair, paralyzed, as a stampede rushed toward me, just as my grandmother was paralyzed and chair-bound... |
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LET GO THE SAFE: by Wayan; 2014/2/6; poem of a lucid flying dream I'm pushing a safe off a roof in Berkeley so it won't be pushed off the roof (yep, you read that right) but it pulls me with it! Either die, or go lucid and fly... |
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LET ME PASS!: by Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree; January 1974, a punning gender nightmare Alli/Tip is lured/tricked into a pen full of women, and tries to get out by repeating this ambiguous plea... |
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LET THERE BE LIGHT by Nancy Price; 1948, a nightmare of helplessness Snakebite! I'm hooked to a health-monitor. If a red light comes on, I'm doomed. But voices start whispering... |
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LITTLE NEMO'S BED: by Winsor McCay; c. 1906, a famous if probably fictional dream icon Little Nemo's bed gets restless and takes him for a wild ride through town and up onto roofs... |
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LIZARD HUSBAND: by Xanthe, 1990/8/30; a nightmare marriage. I visit the underworld court of the Lizard King, but I can't leave: he makes me Queen... CAUTION: MARITAL RAPE (NON-GRAPHIC) |
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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 |
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MAELSTROM AND BORE: by Wayan; 1995/1/23, poem telling a predictive dreamlet. An avian friend of mine researches a whirlpool. But it doesn't want to be studied, and it has friends too... |
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THE MAGIC OF WRITING: by Diana Wynne Jones; 1974, mid-'77, '82, late '83, early '84, & '87; prediction, or causation? What I write in my books and think I have made up has a creepy way of coming true. I noticed it first... CAUTION: DISTURBING INVOLUNTARY MANIFESTATIONS |
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A MAMMOTH FIGHT: by Wayan; 1996/2/26, a dream of another life. A tacky other life... I'm a fight promoter. But my biggest deal ever is growing out of my control. Mammoth versus Rex, sure. But now it's a four-way bout--schoolbus, whale... CAUTION: CRASS ACT |
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MOM THE ALIEN: by Wayan; 1981; a nightmare on family Many kids anxiously dream their parents aren't their real parents. I dreamed my parents ATE my real parents... CAUTION: HUNGRY MONSTERS |
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THE MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE THEORY: by Wayan; 1996/11/6, a dream on synergism. A girl and two cybersnakes are clever but murderous. But when apart, they're not mean at all! Not sin--synergy... |
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MY LIPS ARE SEALED: by Wayan, 1989/6/3, a moody, psychic, epic, two-part dream. I'm a Romantic poet who defeats the curse of the fountain, to marry; but when our daughter's grown, a new curse strikes me mute, paralyzed. And I mistake this for old age! Then, in real life, my dad wakes up from a nap paralyzed... |
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NATALIUS' WELTS: by Natalius the Confessor, c.155 CE (or 199?), a dream leaving physical traces. Natalius dreamed that angels whipped him for joining a heretic cult, and woke to find welts on his back... |
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NAZIS BURN MY ART: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; the primal art-nightmare Nazis call my simple architectural drawing a social protest, take it at gunpoint, and toss it in the ovens. The commander mocks me with its ashes... |
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NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S TREE: by King Nebuchadnezzar II; c. 583 BCE, a predictive dream Nebuchadnezzar dreams a voice from heaven commands a great tree be cut; Daniel interprets this as a prediction the king will go mad for 7 years... |
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THE NEPALESE DROP: by Wayan; 2000/4/20, a predictive nightmare. I climb a crumbling slope to a cliff with a Himalayan view; I slip, and no one lifts a hand to help as I... |
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NIGHTMARE TRANSUBSTANTIATION: by Wayan; 2015/2/10; a gross-out but predictive nightmare I'm in a basement, forced to enact a ritual where I must mate with, then FEED on, a flayed creature... I wake shaken, open a random book--and it describes the ancient Celtic rites of Epona... CAUTION: BESTIALITY, MATE-DEVOURING |
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NOT OUR HAWAI'I: by Wayan; 2008/8/20, a dream poem; Dreamverse #10 My sister & I swim round a weirdly shrunken Pacific. Near Fiji, we blunder too close to the drain... |
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NOT THROES; RECOVERY: by Wayan; 2013/6/1, a telepathic, diagnostic dream In a grassy depression, a small animal is thrashing. Death-throes? No. Calisthenics! But not under the animal's control. Someone's testing... |
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ON MOLLY'S FOREHEAD: by Wayan, 1988/11/19, a spiritual sex dream. A child of radicals goes wild in Rio. When we bail her out, we find she's had a strange enlightenment... CAUTION: UNSAFE SEX |
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ON THE SEASHORE: by Gabrielle Bell; between 1998-2002; a lucid dream-comic I'm on a beach in Mexico with a baby--my only souvenir of an affair I can't recall. I'm a mom? My whole life will change! Wait. Is this real, or... |
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ORBITING THE CRYSTAL PALACE: by Wayan; 1998/1/12, a dream of making a home. A wild flying dream lands me among feral children fighting to live in a glass conservatory of lost flowers... |
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ORCA TOWS: by Wayan; 1984/5/25, a dream with impact. I show an Ohio friend the latest California sport. But we haven't quite worked out how to land just yet... |
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ORGY BELOW THE SURFACE: by Rick Veitch; 1994 or before; an embarrassing dream Under the surface of my comics panels, a tiny horde is having an orgy. I can't publish this, it's too embarrassing! Wait a minute. That one is me... CAUTION: MICRO-ORGY |
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THE OUTER LIMITS: by Marianne A.; 1988/3/13, a dream that lucidly intervenes in itself! I'm trapped in the scary show The Outer Limits. A man scolds me: "You think not, but you MATTER!" I try suicide rather than face my worth! But my dream fences off the river, forcing me to confront... CAUTION: SUICIDE ATTEMPT |
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OVERWHELMED YOSEMITE DAD: by Wayan; 1998/9/25, a warning dream. Mom's vanished, and our writer/bohemian dad's caring for us alone now. But he's barely coping. And he's me... |
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PAIN-RATIONER'S STRIKE: by Wayan; 1987/1/1, a dream on self-torture. Three men torture my friend (or is he ME?) and try to keep me from intervening... CAUTION: FAST-TALKING BULLIES |
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THE PAINT KIDS: by Wayan; 1996/11/23, an apparent predictive dream. Two child artists mail themselves to me in their paint kit, and start a painting orgy that gets messy in more ways than one... CAUTION: PEDOPHILIA, OR MAYBE PEDOPHOBIA |
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PANIC ATTACK IN MY SLEEP; 2012/1/11 by Rainier Mathee; a nightmare on every level No work, no friends, no lover. People power-drill their own skulls. My uncle's going insane. And when I call 911... CAUTION: BLEAK |
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THE PARABLE OF THE CAVE: by Wayan; 1993/9/18, an antisocial dream. Plato never did say what shed the light that cast those shadows on his cave wall. I find out. CAUTION: CUT-RATE APOCALYPSE |
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PARLOR GAME: by a bridge builder's wife; pre-1961, a party game interrupted by a real premonition I had fun playing fortuneteller, until David. My hands turned icy. I asked "Where are you going?" |
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PERISSA: by Wayan; 1997/9/13, a sexy dream-comic (small screen, slow loading? Illus. text) When Perissa, an exhibitionistic centaur, bares her body in a crowded Coliseum, she also bares a human-supremacist plot... CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM, SPECISM |
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PETE: by Norman, a soldier on Guam; 1944, either a ghost or hallucination with a lifesaving warning. Pete told me to skip the shortcut. Only after I'd turned the truck around did I realize Pete had died weeks ago... |
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PIG YOYO: by Wayan; 1987/11/21, a dream on how to end self-torture. A hog is tied so it bounces in a fountain, and at the bottom of each bounce, a fork jabs it! How to free this yoyo pig? CAUTION: PAIN |
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PIXY CONCUSSION: by Wayan; 2006/3/11, a diagnostic sex-dream comic, 9 p. (or illus. text) Janet's obsessed with a creepy guy till her pixy friend Kay decides to "knock some sense into her cunt"--literally... CAUTION: LANGUAGE, NASTY LOVE SPELL, PIXIE NUDITY |
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THE PLOWSHARES PROGRAM: by Wayan; 2017/11/12, a nightmare on tech disasters Looks like this underground nuclear test will leak. Minutes from detonation, we flee up the spiral stair and out across the sand. Can we run far enough in time? |
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POLE OF THE EMPIRE STATE: by Wayan; 2002/3/26, a 9/11 nightmare about... suspension? I find myself clinging to a pole as tall as the Empire State Building. Can I slide down without falling? Or burning from friction? And... what's down there? |
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A PREMONITION: by Al Davison, 1973, a life-saving predictive dream At thirteen, I dreamed a van crashed right at the spot where my best friend always met me after school. The next day we went to see what'd happen. I suggested we stand across the road just to be safe... |
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PUFF TIDE: by Wayan; 1993/5/1, a nightmare on indulging rage and tears. I'm swept off sea-rocks, as my scaly guardian watches calmly--letting me drown in the tears I shed... CAUTION: DROWNING |
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PULLED UNDER: by Wayan; 1976/4/15, a nightmare. One by one, we're pulled under the water, the earth... eaten. That's the fate of all flesh. And we're flesh. CAUTION: HORROR |
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A PULP MYSTERY: by Wayan; 1997/5/7, a nightmare. A detective talks all his suspects into suicide. But they still bury me in wood pulp and beat me to death... CAUTION: BAD POLICE PROCEDURE |
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PURSUED, I RAN INTO THE BARN: by Dorothea Tanning; 2003? A nightmare-poem A monster's out to eat my dog--and maybe me. We get cornered in the barn... |
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PYLONS: by Louis MacNeice; Jan. 1940. A surreal political dream. I was on a steamer run amok, in a boiling yellow incredible sea out of which great pylons rose... |
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QUIT THAT LAB!: by Wayan; 1999/5/2, a deductive nightmare. I'm working alone in the lab at night, when the lab gear wakes up and tries to kill me... |
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RADIANCE: by Anonymous #42, 1996?, a transcendent dream backed away from In the recording studio, some background noise. Isolated and amplified, it's a chorus of inhuman voices praising an unknown deity. The song becomes a mandala pulling me in... |
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RAIN OF WOMEN: by Wayan; 1999/6/11, a warning nightmare. Women rain out of the sky. People shrug "Suicides." I don't believe it--and what if one falls on me? CAUTION: SEXIST BLINDNESS TO VIOLENCE |
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RATTLER BANQUET: by Wayan; 1993/1/29, a pointed nightmare; it leaves punctures! My parents invite me out to dinner, but there's a rattlesnake under the table, and my mom chases it up my leg. I wake to find two holes in my knee... |
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RATTLER BY THE CONTROLS: by Wayan; 1978/10/19, an anti-phallic-symbol dream. I dreamed I was riding a huge toy train, and a gigantic rattlesnake was at the controls... |
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RAZOR GHOST: by Wayan; 1974/5/5, a nightmare posing a problem. A man slowly walled in by neighbors till he died, is now a mad, murderous ghost. And he's me! Can I exorcise MYSELF? CAUTION: VIOLENCE |
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REBEL OWL: by Wayan; 1971/10/9, a dream so mysterious it mystified its inhabitants My city's invaded and occupied. I become a gigantic Owl and fight with impossible stamina. But in the end I'm dead, stuffed, on a museum wall. Can I let go NOW? CAUTION: WAR |
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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... |
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RIB-CRUSHER: by Robert Southey; 1823/10/5, a nightmare leaving traces I was in the grave. Worse, a living skeleton was trying to crush my ribs. Though terrified, I fought back, and... |
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ROSEMARY AND FRANCES: by Rosemary; 1936/6/5, a predictive mood & flash saves one of two sisters Gloom clung to me & I skipped the dance. I begged Frances to ride in a safe car, but coming home... |
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RUNAWAY MOONS: by Wayan; 2011/4/6, an absurd nightmare poem New moons appear. I try to mash them into a spare Earth, but botch the orbits. So now, runaway moons rumble down a steep San Francisco hill... CAUTION: ALWAYS SET PARKING BRAKE |
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RUNNING BIRD: by Alder; 1953, a kinetic nightmare with double selves. I'm a flightless bird hopping down a line of marble columns rising from the sea, as they topple behind me... |
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SATANIC LION'S WARNING: by Eldon B.; 2007/1/19, a nightmare with poltergeist activity I fled a demon into a shadowy construction zone where an even worse telepathic lion-devil lured me in with soothing flattery. I woke shaking--and then things in my room began to move... CAUTION: DEMONS, POLTERGEIST PHENOMENA |
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THE SEA-HAG RIOT: by Wayan; 1989/6/5, a wild dream hiding a warning. Aliens, hypnotherapy, dancing molars, riots, witches, flying pianos, lettuce... yet there is a point. |
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SECRET SCREEN: by Wayan; 2018/4/19 and 2018/5/16, three linked dreamlets of escape A friend nags me to be lookout as he steals a cult's papers. I know it'll end in murder, but foresight paralyzes me! In a videogame that keeps freezing unplayably, I find a button calling up a secret screen of second chances... I'm lost in a grim basement, but two kids show me a cobwebbed glass door you can walk through like air... |
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SET ON FIRE: by Wayan; 2017/10/15, a dream on reckless stupidity Yuppies with a lighter set me on fire--not even out of malice, just idly. I'm a shaman, I can survive it, but I'm not immune to pain... CAUTION: NIGHTMARE, UGLY POLITICAL COMPARISONS |
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THE SHADOW OF LIBERTY: by Wayan; 1989/7/8, a comic nightmare, possibly telepathic. My sisters get bored with the game of power, so I watch TV-- until it melts, and a terrifying giant rises to chases me... |
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SHOCKWAVE: by Wayan; 1996/7/27, a predictive nightmare. My childhood home explodes into a vast pyroclastic cloud that comes boiling toward me, miles away... CAUTION: DOOM |
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SILLA KRISTOS: by Silla Kristos, c.1634; a didactic during-death vision Silla Kristos angered Saint Walatta Petros, so she cursed him. He got sick and died. She knew she'd overdone it, and asked the Virgin Mary to revive him. Mary grumbled, but did. While dead, Silla Kristos got wise angelic advice... CAUTION: BRATTY SAINT, BRATTY MONK |
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SLAVES DON'T DANCE: by Wayan; 1999/8/1, a 17-page Shakespearean dream-comic (or ill. text) Stolen by the Fairy Queen, I'm forced to nurse her great project: creating life! But her synthetic baby is... |
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SLAVE'S CHOICE: by Emily Joy; 2007/4/8; a dream of a rock and a hard place. At boot camp for sex slaves, a rapist makes me a surprisingly tempting offer. But it's really not about sex, is it? CAUTION: ORAL SEX, OUTRAGEOUS COMPARISON |
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SO AROUSAL MEANS REM?: by Wayan; 1999/5/19, a dream on dreams. My sexual orientation shifts arbitrarily, turned on one second, off the next. Who's at the controls? CAUTION: SEXUAL CONFUSION |
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SO GUARDED A SKIN: by Wayan; dreamed 1983/6/11, a dream of a Freudian... blurt? An art critic asks me what I think of a sexually explicit nude, and I find myself blurting nearly the opposite of my conscious opinion... CAUTION: NUDE SKETCH |
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SOUL-BOARD: by Wayan; 1989/1/12, a dream poem. Africa. My horse trusted me as we faced lions and fire, but to face the Soul-Board, he must trust himself... |
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SPIRAL LAUGHTER: by Alder; 1953, a child's feverdream The world is a whirlpool, a black and white spiral pulling me down toward a black hole, and it's laughing... |
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SPIRIT CHORUS: by Wayan; dreamed 2016/2/8, a curative dream I drum on an ocarina-gong in the dark. My weird music summons a choir of fierce angels, who send a wave of tingling energy surging through me... |
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SPLIT THREE WAYS: by Wayan; 2010/8/24, a quantum dream of overwhelm On the freeway, my car and I split into quantum possibilities. I steer both entangled cars till I split again--now I have to steer three cars with just one pair of hands and eyes... |
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SPORECOUNT: by Wayan; 1990/1/5, a dreamtale on patience through change. I'm a hot archeology student till I open the wrong tomb. A plague turns us into green moldy monsters--at first... CAUTION: DISEASE, DEATH, GRIEF, SHAME |
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A SQUARE IN THE HAND: by Anna Kingsford; 1887/4/12, an epic nightmare with a twist I'm a French revolutionary facing a firing squad. But palmistry predicts I'll be strangely saved... |
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STABBED ALIVE: by Roswila; 2007/10/9, a nightmare-poem I defeat the knife-wielder, in spite the blade in my belly I can't pull out. I may have to let it be... |
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STANLEY, or, GOOD DOG!: by Wayan; 1994/6/1, a dream on... obedience. My friend Stanley is a social icebreaker: blundering in where I'm too shy, and too thick-skinned to worry much. He is what he is. So why am I mad at him? |
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STEPHANIE GODOT: by Wayan; 1994/12/14, a waking comedy of two dreamworkers. My unconscious sabotages a lunch date with my friend Stephanie. The tricks get weirder, till... |
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STOP RESISTING; 2000/1/2 by Anonymous #37; nightmare of injustice I'm sentenced for a crime I didn't commit; then the bailiff beats me for "resisting", though I'm not... CAUTION: VIOLENCE, SWEARING |
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STORM OF HUGE RAINDROPS: by Albrecht Dürer; 1525/5/30, watercolor of a size-nightmare The first drop struck about four miles away, with terrific force and thunder, breaking and drowning the land... |
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SULE SKERRY: by Wayan; 1984/8/13, a non-nightmare. My sister and I are on a ship abandoned by its crew, heading full-steam for the rocks, when... |
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SURRENDER TO THE WHITE BUFFALO: by Kathleen Sullivan, 1970s?; a nightmare turned shamanic A gigantic herd of buffalo stampede toward me. I panic, then surrender in peace to what is surely my death... |
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THE TAKEOVER: by Lee Olivier; 2004/6/28, a triple diagnostic nightmare An alien is taking over our world, and I feel so helpless that even when I wake I want to just forget the dream... |
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THE TELLTALE HEART: by SAO (Shawn Allen O'Neal); 1970s, ominously prophetic nightmare High up a scaffold, I was beating the chaff off a huge seed, unable to stop. I was beating my own heart... |
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TERRIBLE HORSE: by Louise Bogan; 1941, poem of a healing dream A stallion reared to strike me. He was all the fear and rage I'd repressed for 35 years. I cowered til a woman said "offer him... |
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THAT WIND: by Wayan; 1986/8/29; an undream poem on a daymare Nightmares can warn. But when awake, what warning can you get from nonstop ill-luck? |
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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 |
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THEY'RE HANGING THE POLITICAL TRAITOR: by Jack Kerouac, late Sept. 1953, a sad dad dream They're hanging the political traitor in my closet. I stand horrified. The old man's resigned--no complaint. It's my father, I now realize... |
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THIRTY DAYS; 1980/4/15-16 by Wayan; a poem on an ill-timed premonition--or something worse Did sex turn creepy because I sensed the madman stalking us? Or did our sin (casual sex) summon him? CAUTION: CREEPY SEX, CREEPIER PREMONITIONS |
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THYROID: by Marc Ian Barasch, c. 1985; a set of life-saving diagnostic nightmares In 1985 I was flooded with nightmares about heads and necks. They had an unparalleled intensity... |
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THE TORTURER: by Wayan; 1997/7/13, a predictive nightmare A free-lance torturer chooses me for his victim. He has the right. I bluster, but when I fall asleep at last... CAUTION: NO PAIN, BUT GORE |
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THE TRAIN ON TIME CAFE: by Wayan, 1981/12/20, an epic political dream. Silicon Valley goes enthusiastically fascist. I hide in a berry patch. They build a shining world, and then... |
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TRICERATOPS, or, THE GUY WHO SCRIPTS MY DREAMS: by Wayan, 1982/8/24; a dream on dreams Stuck in a horror movie, I get to meet the triceratops-headed monster who scriptwrites all my nightmares. But he's open to suggestions... |
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TROUT BECK by Nancy Price; summer 1933, an aerial comic dream-epic I'm carried off by a crane to meet birdfish, singing sheep, fell-spirits, mad shopkeepers and devil-bulls... |
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TRUST YOUR CANOE: by Wayan; 2012/8/16, two diagnostic dreamlets I ride a magical self-guiding canoe, seeking the right beach and cove for me. Even when the boat climbs hills so I can explore inland, I expect it to fail... |
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THE 1200-STEP PROGRAM: by Wayan; 1987/12/17, an illustrated dreamtale. I'm climbing a tower, as my dad, Apollo, drunk, throws bottles at me from the top, breaking bones... CAUTION: DENIAL ABOUT ALCOHOLISM |
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TWO BISHOP APPLICANTS: by Wayan; 1984/11/21, a surreal but mercilessly logical dream. My mind and my soul both apply for a job in Stanford Cathedral. Their rivalry grows to a shamanic duel... |
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VAMPIRE LOVE: by Sarah Binkley; 2013/9/6, a near-drowning sex dream I volunteered to meet him underground. He held me underwater and slammed into me. I nearly drowned, yet... CAUTION: ROUGH SEX |
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VERITY, TOO?: by Wayan; 2000/11/5, a comic nightmare with good advice--if I avoid Freud! My art mentors turn on me! My mom the painter says I'm genetically inferior, and then my art teacher Verity sits on my head (ow!) and chants... |
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VERY FUNNY, MR. MOSLEY: by Wayan; 2009/10/8, a comic nightmare poem; Dreamverse #58 Trapped in a blend of Joan of Arcadia and The Tempest Tales, I'm tired of being the pratfall sidekick... |
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VIDEO WOLVES: by Wayan; 2009/2/23, a dreamsong (MP3+lyrics), Dreamverse #41 Robot wolves with videocamera eyes prowl our block, freezing me in their headlight glare. Why do I think one's my ex-girlfriend? |
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THE VIDEOGRAPHER'S APPRENTICE: by Wayan; 1994/7/29, a predictive/warning dream. Blondie Wiggle builds a Video Igloo. But I'm allergic--TV kills me! A BAD omen for our video project... CAUTION: TV KILLS (BUT YOU KNEW THAT) |
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VIEWPOINT: by Wayan; 1991/6/9, a dream on pastlife amnesia. I ask to see my past lives, and dream of a viewpoint where I can--but this Mormon ranger... |
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VIRGINIA'S TRAIN: by Emily Joy; 2005/9/24, a psychic dream and poem
We lose control of our new time machine, which seems to have its own agenda... CAUTION: CONTEMPLATION OF SUICIDE, CHRONOLOGICALLY IMPAIRED DREAMER |
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THE VOICE OF GOD: by Wayan, 1993/1/31, a psychic nightmare-epic. Half-mad with fear, I massacre a cult, till my gun manifests stigmata: a gory miracle. Then I'm a cultist, resisting the Voice of God pushing all us mortals to murder in His name. I woke up haunted, and wondered for weeks what this was about... until the Waco Massacre. CAUTION: CREEPY VIOLENCE, CREEPY GOD, CREEPY PREDICTION |
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VULTURE PEOPLE: by Jack Kerouac, 1962, a gross-out nightmare--and a warning? The vulture people are fucking in the city dump. I end up their guest, given putrid food in their cold stinking house of rancid grease. I'll become a vulture too... CAUTION: UGH! |
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WHAT YOU IMAGINE HAPPENS: by Wayan; 1982/2/21; a dreampoem on quarks. Or spooks. 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) |
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THE WHEEL by Nancy Price; 1948, an early, intense dream of Future Shock. Lost in an industrial maze, my memories hopelessly outdated, I resign myself to the Wheel... |
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THE WILD HUNT: by Wayan; 1998/7/24, a dream of myth--or abuse?. We're exploring the English farm we inherited, when The Wild Hunt storms over the hill... |
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WIRES: by Wayan; 1957-1963, a recurrent childhood nightmare resolved by drawing, 1999/12/8 I was bodiless but trapped. All I could see were these moving wires. Whenever a knot drifted by... CAUTION: MADNESS, TORMENT, TELEPATHY, SEXUAL REBELLION |
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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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WITNESS: by Patagia, 2006/2/16, a poem of a redemptive nightmare A woman I had wronged set her pit bull on me! Hand in its jaws, I gave in, and we both began crying... |
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WORLD TOUR: by Sharon Boyle; 1937?, a nightmare told to her mom, poet Kay Boyle This man comes into the chapel, makes a fascist salute, catches fire, and burns right down to his shoes... |
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THE WORM: by Emily Dickinson, 1860-1886?, a nightmare-poem Emily Dickinson ties up a worm she mistrusts. Bad move! It grows to a talking snake with a score to settle... |
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THE WRECK: by Denise Levertov 1980 or before; a surreal dream-dilemma We go swimming in a sea full of wrecked tankers. We explore one derelict, but ebb tide pries it off the bank, out to sea. Do we swim for shore, or wait, hoping high tide will wash it in again? Guess wrong and we die... |
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