As I was about to enter The People's Palace of Marvels, a blind man approached me and asked me to take his arm and serve him as his guide. I agreed reluctantly.

The enormous building contained huge hangar-sized areas for different activities and entertainments. I described what we were walking past to the blind man.

Then it occurred to me that it would be nice if the place contained an ice rink. No sooner had I had the thought than we entered upon the ice rink.

The blind man was astonished that I could have such an idea and see it turned into reality so swiftly, but I was dimly aware that I was in a dream-like situation (perhaps even a dream?) and I assured him that I could make things happen just by thinking about them. Why I could even cure his blindness! I would pass my hands over his eyes and he would see again.

However, when I did so, nothing happened. He was furious with me.

I too was in a fury with myself. How could I have so misjudged my situation?

SOURCE: The Tiger Garden: A Book of Writers' Dreams by Nicholas Royle, p.113. Original passage untitled.

EDITOR'S NOTE

The Tiger Garden has a recurrent theme: in its few lucid dreams (borderline as here, or full-blown, it doesn't seem to matter), the dreamer lacks that famous lucid power to alter the dream freely. Why such limits? My own lucid dreams and online lucid-dream accounts rarely have such problems.

My pet theory is that Stephen La Berge, guru of lucid dreams, is American, and the Web is still American-dominated, and Americans, notoriously, do as they please. But The Tiger Garden showcases mostly British writers, and Brits worry what others will think. Play God? They literally wouldn't dream of it.

Also... living in a repressed culture means the unconscious gets frustrated pretty often. Maybe it turns the tables in dreams--shows the conscious what it feels like to have its longings denied. "Here's how you treat me. How do you like it?"

Denise Levertov's similar dream Uncertain Oneiromancy offers a third idea--that in dreams where you guide someone else, you don't represent the waking mind but dreaming, and the figure you lead through jungle, museum or festival is the bumbling, clueless waking mind! Though this theory doesn't explain the geographical difference between American and British lucid dreams, it seems plausible in a lot of dreams. And in our sleep-starved, oneirophobic society, a lot of unconsciouses do get stuck dealing with dreamers who are maddeningly, incurably blind.

--Chris Wayan

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