When I was about seven years old, I had the following dream. I was inside a darkly lit castle, with long corridors lined with fire torches here and there, stone staircases, and long spider webs hanging from every corner. At first the dream was just an interesting adventure in this dark and interesting dreamscape. Soon, however, the dream turned into an intense nightmare. Suddenly, a group of large serpents came from around a corner. They looked mean and hungry. The chase was on, and the serpents were adept pursuers. Running down corridors and from room to room, it seemed hopeless.

After what seemed like many minutes of this terrifying pursuit, things took an abrupt turn--I became lucid. I was aware; I was conscious. I was asleep and awake at the same time. The dream continued, but I was totally alert, and was plotting. I devised a perfect plan to conquer these menacing snakes. I ran quickly ahead of the pack of pursuers and ran into a dark room. The only light was that shining through the door from the fire torches in the corridor. There I stood knowing that the snakes would be coming through that door any moment. I then made a large metal sword appear in my hand and readied myself. Sure enough, here they came, with savage expressions on their serpentine faces. But I was ready. When the lead snake was in range, I struck. Off came his head as my sword cut through his body just below the head. I was victorious! The other serpents were shocked and amazed. They reared up, askance, looking back and forth between their fallen comrade and me.

I fully awoke at this point, breathing heavily, sweat on my forehead, and completely overwhelmed by the whole experience. But, as I was waking up, the last image I saw was of the other snakes beginning to cry over their fallen friend. There I sat in the dark, eyes open, reviewing everything that had just happened in this intense dream. I felt scared, victorious, and now I was also feeling very sad and remorseful for having killed the one serpent.

After thinking about it for a second, I could stand it no longer. I lay back down with my head on my pillow. I went back to sleep again. I went back to the castle, only this time I had to enter from the front door. I walked up to the large castle door, opened it, and walked slowly inside. I was back for a purpose and would not be deterred. I remembered the basic layout of the castle, so I was able to navigate my way back through the labyrinth of corridors to the room in which the serpent slaying had taken place. Soon I came to this room and turned the corner to see the group of large serpents still mourning over the slain one. I walked up and they turned to look at me. Their facial expressions said: "And just what are you doing here?!?!…. You've killed our friend and you dare show your face here again?!?"

I paid no heed and walked around them to the headless serpent. I then willed that a huge box of Band-Aids appear. (I was seven years old, after all). This happened, and I quickly removed a Band-Aid from the box. It was nearly as large as my body. I unwrapped the Band-Aid and then put the snake's head on his body, bandaging up the wound with the Band-Aid. I put two or three more Band-aids around the wound to make sure his head would stay on. To my surprise, and to the surprise of the other snakes as well, the once dead snake came back to life.

We all looked at each other and smiled. I was delighted. The most euphoric warmth enveloped me, and the whole group of us were absolutely jubilant. We all agreed to be friends and started having a party with dancing and singing.

From here the dream drifted off into something else, and I don't remember anything further. This dream is still quite vivid in my memory now at age 29.

--Bagheera Pardus

EDITOR'S NOTES

"Bagheera Pardus" originally web-published the text of this dream as the introduction to an essay on the history of lucid dreaming. Unfortunately Bagheera's email address didn't work, and I've found no alternate contact info anywhere on the Web. The dream was so wonderful I decided to excerpt it here, hoping Bagheera won't mind.

The Photoshop sketches are mine, not Bagheera's; probably very inaccurate. I just couldn't resist the temptation to draw the new line of giant green "scale-colored" Band-Aids (for all your dragon owies!)

--Chris Wayan

World Dream Bank homepage - Art gallery - New stuff - Introductory sampler, best dreams, best art - On dreamwork - Books
Indexes: Subject - Author - Date - Names - Places - Art media/styles
Titles: A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - IJ - KL - M - NO - PQ - R - Sa-Sk - Sl-Sz - T - UV - WXYZ
Email: wdreamb@yahoo.com - Catalog of art, books, CDs - Behind the Curtain: FAQs, bio, site map - Kindred sites